AHC: Build tunnels/bridges/railways etc. that never were...

In the 19th century they have run smack into the Fosse Dangaered, which would have ended the whole project there and them. It wasn't the tunneling technology which would have let them down, it was the marine survey technology, which was really primitive back then.

How about some NZ projects? (noting that we probably couldn't afford them).

One that probably should have happened was extension of the train network into the CBD/south eastern suburbs, via a third tunnel through Mt Victoria.

Silly and useless vanity projects:

1. Bridge across the mouth of Wellington Harbour

2. Bridge across the Otago Harbour from Pt Chalmers to Portobello (god knows why!). It would look pretty spectacular?

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Talking about railways, what about making the Fleming "northern route", the original plan, the CPR main line? It would've gone through passes that were already surveyed...& would have IMO helped encourage development of Canada's north.
 
In Japan, there were plans to build an actual standard-gauge Shinkansen line from Tokyo Station to stations underneath Terminals 1 and 2 at Narita International Airport. But the cost of land acquisition and the shaky finances of Japan National Railways during the first half of the 1980's (due to substantial cost overruns to building the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen lines) scuttled the idea.

Interestingly, part of the right-of-way originally acquired for the abandoned Narita Shinkansen project became part of Keisei Electric Railway's Narita Sky Access line, which allows Keisei Skyliner trains to go from Narita Airport back to Keise's own station at Ueno (just north of Tokyo Station) in only 36 minutes! This is because the Skyliner reaches 160 km/h (100 mph) on much of the route along the way.
 
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