US builds undersea highway from Florida to Haiti

Did the construction of an undersea highway from Florida to Haiti, which started construction mid 2009, trigger off the devastating magnitude 7. earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010?

"a devastating 7M earthquake struck on January 12 at 1653 local time (2153 GMT). The massive tremor's epicenter was approximately 10 miles southwest from the capital, Port-au-Prince, and at a depth of 6.2 miles² and is the most powerful to hit in 200 years.

Chaos and fear on this island nation is tangible. Haiti's President has appealed for international aid after dozens of aftershocks have ensued, stating that: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed."

The Florida Haiti Interstate Tunnel, I-95U or Caribbean International Highway Route 1 is an under construction underwater highway tunnel spanning from southern Florida, outside of Miami to northern Haiti, the city of Cap-Haitien.

The tunnel began construction in mid 2009, so far spanning 100 miles in length at the sea floor. The tunnel itself is expected completion by early 2011 with addition work completing by late 2011, spanning a total of 600 miles. The Caribbean International Highway construction was featured on Discovery ChannelsExtreme Engineering documentary series.

I-95U

The Union of Everett interstate route number assigned to the tunnel is I-95U standing for Interstate 95 Underwater.

I-95U will feature a rest stop every 50 miles containing fuel stations, food, restrooms and fire/medical/police centers.

Everetti police stations will be located every hundred miles which would be used to respond to car accidents and other incidents. Fire/rescue and EMS stations will be located every 50 miles at each rest stop.

I-95U will have a speed limit of 75 miles per hour, which will be enforced electronically rather than have police patrols. The tunnel will have three lanes of traffic for both the west bound and east bound sides, totalling six lanes.

In addition to the road for cars, there will be three railroad lines, two of which are regular train lines and one will be part of the Maglev system as the Caribbean International Highway Line also called the I-95 Line.

I-95U is a concept tunnel as part of a global architecture test for a plan for a global highway that spans the Earth, originally conceived in the 1990s. If the 600 miles tunnel succeeds, it may lead to the planning stages of the global highway system.

Construction

Currently, 110 miles of the CIH-1 tunnel have been completed, spanning from Miami, Florida to the CIH-1/CIH-2 Interchange point. Construction involves the use of a massive crane barge which carries each of the 660 foot long sections of tunnel and lowers them into the water where they will be locked and sealed in place.

Each tunnel section is 660 feet long, 140 feet wide and 25 feet tall, totalling 4,800 tunnel sections to be placed under the water. There are currently four barges working, each carrying two tunnel sections. A total of eight sections are laid a day, totalling one mile in distance added to the tunnel every 24 hours. Tunnel sections are produced and constructed on land in large warehouses.

Caribbean International Highway

The Caribbean International Highway is a proposed CARICOM plan to create an underwater tunnel highway connecting several Caribbean nations with road routes. CIH-1 is already under construction, the I-95U tunnel stretching from Florida to Haiti. Additional tunnels will connect between nations such as CIH-2, connecting Cuba to I-95U and CIH-3, connecting the Bahamas main island and capitol, Nassau, to the I-95U tunnel. Other routes, CIH-4 will connect Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic and CIH-5 connecting Haiti to Jamaica with a stop at the U.S. Navassa Islands.

Venezeula

A part of the CIH proposal is in agreement with Everett's peace treaty with Venezuela. To aid in trade between all Caribbean nations, Venezuela wants a connection to the tunnel system.

Everett though did not want to disturb all of the smaller islands along the way, which may damage their ecosystems and clear waters and beaches.

A proposed tunnel addition, named CIH-6 would run from Puerto Rico, passing through the Virgin Islands and follow south through all of the smaller Caribbean nations, passing through St. Kitts & Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Grenada into Venezuela.

This remains in discussion but would open up trade and tourism for all the affected islands and nations along the tunnel route.