I'd like to present you one of my favorites engineering public works dream to be made in Greece; a bridge connecting Epirus with Kerkyra.

But thanks to the computer assistance I can make feasible this dream to get at least a pictorial form and sharing it with you folks, thus making it get a step further from being just an image in my mind.

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/6799/kerkyraproject14fn.jpg

It would be made up of four suspension legs of 2kms each resulting in a full 8kms bridge with extreme points the Mourtos Port in Perdika of Epirus (some 15 kms from Igoumenitsa) at one point and Leukimi of Kerkyra in the other almost in the southern tip of the island.

There are closer areas to the mainland, nevertheless due to its rough terrain relief full of mountains at both sides it would be easier and more economic in this area (the flattest in Kerkyra), in spite of this issue it must be stressed out that in the Epirotan edge where Mourtos port is located there's a mountain of some 600mts rising from the sea.

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/4033/kerkyraproject20od.jpg

This bridge could help the transportation between the island and the mainland and additionally it might represent an extension of the Egnatia Odos planned to reach up to Igoumenitsa, Thus adding some 60 kms to the network up to the town of Kerkyra.

Of course there's a better, cheaper, shorter and less utopic solution that could be carried out and that's connecting Port Agios Stefanos in North Kerkyra with Bouthrotos coast in Northern Epirus being located 2.1 kms away from each other, unfortunately this cannot be done since nowadays that land is part of Albania and such a work in current conditions between the two countries (political, social and economical) doesn't represent such a good investment, not to say that this approach would keep the bridge isolated from the rest of the Egnatia odos network.

Finally to go even a step further I baptized this "utopic??" dream with the name of Ioannis Kapodistrias born in Kerkyra in Feb 11, 1776 and who was president of Greece from April, 1827 to Oct 9, 1831 when he was murdered in Nafplion.

Great idea and good work.

The distance is great though. Perhaps an undersea tunnel? And to make it feasible in terms of expending that money, why not extend it to Italy?

Albania and Italy have discussed preliminary an undersea connection, but IMO a connection to Greece would be more ideal for Italia.

i dont think its necessary. good presentation but it would be a waste of money. its not like Kerkyra needs a road connection desperatly.

True but imagine a tunnel connecting Italia-Hellas through Corfu. It would open up western Europe to Greece bypassing the Balkans, and in turn imagine an Istanbul-Bari route with train. :eek: :eek:

Well I know you guys are not fond of Albania :D but I had a simmiliar idea linking Butrint in Southern Albania with Corfu cause the distance was small. You arewrongin saying that Egnatia Odos would not be linked with this project cause the Adriatico Ionnian highways links them.

Now furthermore on the Italian thing the project from Albania is more feasible for any logical person and that is what matters and I do not see how why is better for Italy to do this with Greece, while Italy considers itself almost a part of Corridor VIII and AMBO projects and a such a project would benefit it a lot.

Great presentation :okay:

First Illiricum, Greece and Italy are both members of the EU. As for the distance it is exactly the same from Othonoi, Greece to Proto Graulo, Italy as well as from Avlona to the same point in Italy.

So the only difference would be the manpower of Albania which is cheaper but the burocracy of your country is more complex and corrupt than that of Greece. Also Greece and Italy are managed in some way from Brussels.

Technically is the same since both Albania and Greece have the same distance from the same point in Italy.

As for a tunnel....well that's a good idea a second Eurotunnel which would be also most beneficial.

Anyway what I'm sure of is that such a project is needed and would help and of course decrease the transportation fares between the Balkans and Italy.

As for Kerkyra and the so called Kapodistrias bridge it would be just a leg of this bigger project at issue connecting Greece with Italy, so Kerkyra would be just one more leg of the Egnatia Odos connecting the Evros in Thrace with Italy and in a longer term Constantinople-Thessaloniki-Rome.

Finally if you want to connect Avlona (which I'm sure that's the area you talking about) with Porto Graulo, no problem at all we could start the talks about a Northern Epirus unification with Greece and thus we could make the bridge from the area you're talking about m)) hehe

Well I know you guys are not fond of Albania

Not true.

tis onli 8 kilometres the distance between the island and mainland? :uh:

Such a project could not be feasible, because Corfu, my home town, has only 120.000 inhabitants and there is no need to build such an extensive bridge. The only solution in linking Corfu to the mainland is to build a tunnel from Ag. Stefanos to Vouthroto and then a highway from vouthroto to Sagiada and Igoumenitsa. Also there should be an upgrade to Corfu's road network because our roads are in a state of disrepair. And yes Northern Epirus should become a part of Greece or Albania join the EU before tunneling hehe

uhm... i think is more than 8km away from the mainland... Google Earth said so:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z188/ovem/kerkyra.jpg

but there's a shorter distance to Albania about 2km:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z188/ovem/kerkyra2.jpg

Well I know you guys are not fond of Albania :D but I had a simmiliar idea linking Butrint in Southern Albania with Corfu cause the distance was small. You arewrongin saying that Egnatia Odos would not be linked with this project cause the Adriatico Ionnian highways links them.

Now furthermore on the Italian thing the project from Albania is more feasible for any logical person and that is what matters and I do not see how why is better for Italy to do this with Greece, while Italy considers itself almost a part of Corridor VIII and AMBO projects and a such a project would benefit it a lot.

hallo illiricum i dont think that a bridge linking corfu with land will ever become true but if it was to happen practicaly thinking the only option would be a bridge linking corfu to albania.you see as igoumenitsa port becomes the main western gate of greece a bridge linking thesprotia with south corfu would force all ships coming from patra doing the circle around corfu as a bridge 8 klm long would be impossible to be hight enought that ships can fit underneath it...anyway thats all theory,this bridge will never happen

i have a crazy never come true idea too.....if you close with a dam the korinthos canal and you make onother dam to stop water where rio antirio bridge is so that between peloponesse and sterea ellada water stops running gradually all that area that is see now will become a lake and eventually land and peloponese will join sterea ellada......the same could happen with evia ... but then we would have to change the map of greece so lets forget it....;-)

Looks very nice :)

The height issue is not a problem at all, look what happens now in Rio-Antirio where ships passing underneath fit perfectly.

Now regarding the feasibility of such a project, of course it is one of my crazy projects hehehe. Unless Kerkyra had a bigger population (and I hope it remains as it is) or it was a middle point in a bridge-tunnels system linking Greece with Italy....hmphhhh, I like that idea...........****sigh****. Anyway, I consider as more possible (and real) a 2kms tunnel linking Salamina and Perama instead of a bridge linking Kerkyra with Epirus, but if ever, maybe by 2050 anyone suggests the idea of linking Greece with Italy....perhaps....it could be done.

As for converting the Korinthiakos Kolpos into a lake I don't see any economical benefits on such an endevour, moreover it could be even catastrophic for the environment of the region, resulting in serious climatic and vegetation changes, not to mention that it would close a vital pass for ships avoiding the 800 kms of circle around the Peloponese.

Btw, the lost pictures showed a bridge I designed similar to the one linking Staten Island with Brooklyn in New York City, the Verrazano; with a high clearance which could allow ships passing underneath, however and unfortunately those images have been lost in the mist of space and time in a vortex that absorbed them for good, sometime between 2005 and 2008 :D. I blame to that the people of the CERN and they experiments hehehe

i dont see any benefits on converting the see between peloponese and sterea ellada to land too but lets just make it for fun .....when i was in the army in korinthos i lost my watch in the see, im sure it will be somewhere down the bottom waiting for me,after all i wanna find out if it realy was waterproof....;-) we can do the same with aegean sea as well,we might find some great ancient wrecks as well .we will even be able to go to the greek islands by car.........."_\><:

I don't think a bridge is needed here.

A bridge to the island would sort of destroy island life?

Well, we all know that the bridge or tunnel to the island is just the first step towards the tunnel to Italy. If this tunnel from Greece to Italy is possible it could mean a bigger political and economic advantage to the region. It will sperr much needed economic development for the Balkans. This tunnel will help connect Thessaloniki and Turkey to the rest of Europe through an alternative route. A high speed rail link could give your traditional continental Europeans the flexibility to the Greek Islands from the port and destinations to Turkey and possible to Asia. While the revers could mean financial profits for companies bringing goods from Asia into the richer countries of Europe.
This tunnel when under construction would mean jobs for locals that are part of the purest regions of Europe. This is not about Greece to Italy but Balkans to Italy. The EU needs this kind of work because the Balkans are considered to be financially and politically unstable.

My question to you is what about the fault lines? Are there any tectonic plate devisions between the Balkans and Italy that would hamper a tunnel?

an underwater tunnel to Italy?!?! man that's really crazy ah?

As long as we're discussing hypothetical projects:

A bridge from Corfu to Epirus would destroy the scenery.

The Rio-Antirrio bridge fits in its location, because it connects two large bodies of land, and doesn't overwhelm the place. It's also much shorter (<3 km) than a hypothetical Corfu-Epirus bridge (about 8km).

I would, however, love to see a Corfu-Epirus rail tunnel. Corfu is the 3rd or 4th most populous of all the islands, and one of the most touristy...although even with this fact, Corfu's population (107.000) may still be too small to merit such a project, but I'd love to see such a tunnel. Right now, there's a busy ferry crossing between Corfu and Igoumenitsa. I would love to see a rail tunnel to connect Corfu to the mainland. Even -perhaps- as soon as trains from Corfu pass the tunnel and reach Epirus, they can transition onto a high-speed line towards Athens. Corfu-Athens in 3.5 hours? and Ioannina-Athens in 2.5 hours? Maybe this would even reduce the need for Athens-Corfu flights, alleviating the island's heavily burdened airport which has no more land for growth. And the tunnel would be much shorter than the Channel Tunnel (about 50 km). But, again, the relatively small population of Corfu might not merit such a cost. But while we're talking about pipe dreams, this is one I'd love to see.

As for Italy-Greece tunnel...no, I don't see any economic benefits from it. No, it wouldn't "spur economic activity in the Balkans", or anything like that. It would just be a glitzy and costly white elephant. And twice the length of the Channel Tunnel, which connects Britain (population 60 million) to the rest of Europe, and 3 large cities (Paris, Brussels, and London), that are fairly close to each other. By contrast, a Greece-Italy tunnel would connect Greece (population only 11 million, and a country most of which is already on the European mainland) to Italy. And the nearest large cities of over 1 million people (Athens, Naples, Rome, Milan, and Venezia-Mestre) will all be very far from this tunnel, rendering its construction rather useless.

Nor would I care for an Italy-Greece tunnel. I would much rather see a Corfu-Epirus tunnel, because it would shorten the travel time between Corfu (a sizeable regional capital, by Greek standards) and central Athens. And it would also provide good regional transportation (Corfiotes can just hop on a train to Ioannina, for example). But a Greece-Italy tunnel wouldn't do much to shorten travel times; it would still be much faster to fly from Athens to Naples/Rome/Milan/Venice, even when you take into consderation check-in, security, baggage claim, and commuting to/from airports. And there's no shortage of Italy-Greece flights.