May 16, 2006

tunnel_l

Well, that was a bit exciting.

There we were, embarking on a Tuesday with nothing better to look forward to than inventing writing a dining review, finishing off the local nightclub rubbish and then watch, almost tearful with boredom, as the pages skipped through the production rooms and off, away, to the presses in Glasgow.

That's about as frenetic as it normally gets on deadline day here in Sleepy Hollow.

But then someone said: "Bomb."

Okay, it wasn't a bomb in our office, but the 1,200lb live penetration bomb that the Navy found in the Mersey last night was cause for concern - and not least because it was on the riverbed perilously close to the section underneath which lies one of the Mersey Tunnels.

Now, around 80,000 vehicles use the tunnels everyday, the majority around the rush hours.

But the bomb - the same size (if not composition) of the bomb used in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center by Ramzi Yousef - had to be moved at 8.30am, because of low tide and slightly less-than-hellish currents for the Royal Navy bomb squad.

If it had gone off?

Think of taking the plug out of your bath, and you should get the picture.

*shudders*

Anyhoo, nobody died, but lots of people were made late for work. And that annoys people on Wirral, because we feel we get a bad deal on transport anyway (a trip to Liverpool costs £1.30 each way through the car tunnels).

It completely knackered everyone because the car and rail tunnels were closed off, as were "De Ferreez Cross De Merzee", which meant Wirral people working in Liverpool (lots) couldn't move.

Sadly, that's about the most interesting thing that will happen for the next ten years.

Darn.

I wish the tunnel had blown.