Is there a piece of land currently being eyed for the next canal?

[N-OS X-tasy!]

JoeH wrote:
Well there is a chunk of the land in Panama being eyed for a replacement to the existing canal. There has been talk about a sea level canal through there so they would not have to deal with the lock systems currently used.

Holdups from my understanding are financing and excavation technology. Back in the '50s to early '60s that was one of the "Nukes for Peace" ideas, use a few nukes to blow up some of the terrain into a usable canal.

When I passed through the Panama Canal during a cruise in 2012, construction had started on a third set of locks that would provide the ability for larger ships to pass through the Canal. According to Wikipedia, that project was completed in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Can...expansion)

During a tour of the Canal (during the same cruise), they mentioned a plan, driven by China, to construct a canal through Nicaragua. According to Wikipedia, no real progress has been made on that effort; I thought I'd read a year or two ago the project was essentially dead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Can...agua_canal

[freeradical]

Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. This is just crazy. There must be perhaps a foot of clearance on each side for these boats?

[Paul F.]

freeradical wrote:
Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. This is just crazy. There must be perhaps a foot of clearance on each side for these boats?

Those, I believe, are the old locks... and yes, they called that size of ship "Panamax" for a reason!
The NEW locks are considerably wider... and they're building ships to the NEW maximum size, too. The bigger the ship, the more cost effective to operate it.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....just came back from Canal.......Street.......not too impressive......

[Acer]

Paul F. wrote:
[quote=freeradical]
Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. This is just crazy. There must be perhaps a foot of clearance on each side for these boats?

Those, I believe, are the old locks... and yes, they called that size of ship "Panamax" for a reason!
The NEW locks are considerably wider... and they're building ships to the NEW maximum size, too. The bigger the ship, the more cost effective to operate it.
No threat of being lodged sideways, at least.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

freeradical wrote:
Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. This is just crazy. There must be perhaps a foot of clearance on each side for these boats?

Dude, it IS crazy. I went through on a large cruise ship - there was no more than an couple of feet between the ship and the walls on each side. NO room for error.

You can't see them in that photo, but there are tractors on each side of the canal that attach cables to the ship to pull it through. I'm sure the angles, velocities, et al., that they use are calculated to the nth degree.

[Ombligo]

Not to be outdone - the locks at Sault St. Marie, MI separating Lake Superior and Lake Huron. They were originally built in 1855, today an average of 40 ships per day go through the system, the same as the Panama Canel.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Dig a canal straight from the western most border of China to the Mediterranean. Oh wait, they are planning a high speed rail line for that...

[mrbigstuff]

I'm sure Elon Musk has a solution!

[davester]

Ombligo wrote:
There have been plans proposing a sea-level canal through southern Nicaragua connecting through Lake Nicaragua.

Lake Nicaragua is at 100 feet elevation and is a maximum of 80 feet deep, so that would be impossible unless you drained the 3,000 square mile lake and created an ecological disaster.