One of the key components to this project is the research. Yes, telling people that we are putting together a research library to bring everything about the ocean into one place is very sell-able to governments and philanthropists, but the reality is that beyond all we think and say, beyond all of our emotional fervor believing our knowledge is the last word, we don’t know a damn thing for sure. Everything that we do , by necessity, is research.
Given this as fact, it behooves us to do the best that we can in this area as any mistake can be fatal. It will not be the end of the mission and I think we can learn to survive a class 5. Some quick ideas would be to sink the structure to the bottom, after all it’s only 30 feet deep. Super storm passes and we pump air into the tanks and re-float the structures afterwards.
Think of the walkways as a series of pontoon boats laid end to end like a train. They can be disconnected and sunk to be raised after the storm.
Another idea is for lightweight boardwalks to be built on top of floating pillars. If they get broken up, it’s pretty easy to replace them. So its just a question of build it to last or build it cheap to replace.
Mark, you expressed an interest in another name than walkway or pier, you mentioned avenue which is always good for the female buyers but I think boardwalk would attract just as well and won’t bump into the male way of thinking that ‘avenue’ isn’t vary nautical. What do you think? I associate boardwalk with the water.
My opinion is to go as cheap as we can at first. This would be a pontoon boardwalk with a roof to keep the sun off open sides. Later on we replace some of the main boardwalks with tunnels with windows so you can get to where you are going or just mall around and watch the fish.