During a Panama Canal cruise and visitor’s center, I started wondering: could a project of this magnitude could be built today?
In my opinion is no, it couldn’t.

The canal is both an extraordinary engineering feat and a scar through pristine rainforest. The environmental implications would make such a project a prime target for environmentalists World wide. Not counting the fact that splitting a country in two would nowadays be decried as a major imperialist move.

What are your thoughts?

 

Such projects are currently underway at various places around the globe, where regimes are acting in their own interests, irrespective of the views of their neighbors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ethiopian_Renaissance_Dam#:~:text=The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD or TaIHiGe;,Nile River in Ethiopia under construction since 2011.

Est cost $4.8 Billion
Panama Canal Cost $375 Million

This project is certainly on the same scale cost wise, and of significant impact on multiple neighboring countries.

 

Considering how much of a shambles has been made of building a 100-mile long railway, I doubt it could here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66352286
The price is now about the same as building enough houses for half the population of Birmingham to move to London.

 

I had forgotten about the Ethiopian dam.
That project has the potential to become an existential threat to Egypt mostly, but also to the Sudan.

 

Considering how much of a shambles has been made of building a 100-mile long railway, I doubt it could here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66352286
The price is now about the same as building enough houses for half the population of Birmingham to move to London.

This short sentence: "Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable." is damming.

 

There have been studies done and plans drawn for a second trans-American canal for many years. With the current situation of insufficient water in the Panama Canal and the huge backlog of ships awaiting transit because of low water in the canal it just might happen.

 

There have been studies done and plans drawn for a second trans-American canal for many years. With the current situation of insufficient water in the Panama Canal and the huge backlog of ships awaiting transit because of low water in the canal it just might happen.

Didn't the plan to "excavate" an alternate canal through Nicaragua involve the use of low-yield nuclear devices? Anybody in favor of THAT plan?

 

My understanding is that the project is dead.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/2/26/8114151/nicaragua-canal

 

The Chinese major investor in the Nicaragua route apparently went broke. There is also the
Tehuantepec route through Mexico and even Guatemala has been studied as a possibility. The Chinese are very interested in a quicker route to deliver goods to the US Eastern Seaboard cheaply and faster by more modern and larger ships. Giving long term loans to those countries to invest in a canal is entirely possible if the Chinese economy doesn't go broke first. The gridlock occurring currently at the Panama Canal plus its inability to handle the increasing number of larger modern ships is a driving force to look at other possibilities. Something has to give. Panama has already widened their canal but it already needs to be widened and deepened again. Economics will tell the tale...

 

My understanding is that the project is dead.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/2/26/8114151/nicaragua-canal

Yes, it is for the time being. If it is resurrected at some point in the future, it would not be the first instance of a zombie project coming back to life.

 

The Chinese

This was my first thought regarding this:

could a project of this magnitude could be built today? ... extraordinary engineering ... environmental implications ... major imperialist move.

If anyone could/would, it would be the Chinese. With great Engineering resources and unburdened by silly concerns like the welfare of environment or humans, they could do pretty much anything. And given a few more years they could do it more efficiently using genetically engineered superhuman meat-drones.

 

anyone could/would, it would be the Chinese

Take a then and now look at their 3 Gorges Dam project. It's a miracle that it hasn't collapsed like many of their buildings have. They may have "Engineering Resources" (including their stolen ones) but apparently not the technology nor initiative to enact and enforce engineering and construction quality standards and controls. The majority of their manufacturing is centered around assembly. Xi once held up a ball point pen and berated them for being unable to even manufacture one. They bought their parts from other countries and assembled them but were unable to actually manufacture the ballpoint. It took them over five years before they were able to manufacture their first poorly made one. Such things as quality steel (including simple things like rebar, bolts, and wire) are beyond their current capabilities mostly due to lack of quality control standards and testing. Steel is essential to manufacturing and quality steel is essential to longevity. They build lots of tanks but their cannon barrels wear out three times faster than other nations do.

 

Take a then and now look at their 3 Gorges Dam project. It's a miracle that it hasn't collapsed like many of their buildings have. They may have "Engineering Resources" (including their stolen ones) but apparently not the technology nor initiative to enact and enforce engineering and construction quality standards and controls. The majority of their manufacturing is centered around assembly. Xi once held up a ball point pen and berated them for being unable to even manufacture one. They bought their parts from other countries and assembled them but were unable to actually manufacture the ballpoint. It took them over five years before they were able to manufacture their first poorly made one. Such things as quality steel (including simple things like rebar, bolts, and wire) are beyond their current capabilities mostly due to lack of quality control standards and testing. Steel is essential to manufacturing and quality steel is essential to longevity. They build lots of tanks but their cannon barrels wear out three times faster than other nations do.

The part you mentioned about their steel quality has been changing ... about 10 years ago I bought a 6mm thick stainless steel sheet not knowing it was chinese (yes, the price was great, at least for me) ... turns out the damn thing was cold rolled and hardened but not heat treated and was therefore unworkable with ordinary tools ... it was an expensive lesson for me to learn. Not just for the wasted material but also the amount of work I put into the darn thing trying to find ways to drill and cut it until I gave up. ... .same thing went for a 12mm aluminum sheet ... the stupid thing behaved like a big slab of hardened bubble gum that couldn't be cut nor drilled by an ordinary human.

Anyway ... they learned their lesson and now their quality has improved ten fold. At least in my local market.

 

Take a then and now look at their 3 Gorges Dam project. It's a miracle that it hasn't collapsed like many of their buildings have. They may have "Engineering Resources" (including their stolen ones) but apparently not the technology nor initiative to enact and enforce engineering and construction quality standards and controls. The majority of their manufacturing is centered around assembly. Xi once held up a ball point pen and berated them for being unable to even manufacture one. They bought their parts from other countries and assembled them but were unable to actually manufacture the ballpoint. It took them over five years before they were able to manufacture their first poorly made one. Such things as quality steel (including simple things like rebar, bolts, and wire) are beyond their current capabilities mostly due to lack of quality control standards and testing. Steel is essential to manufacturing and quality steel is essential to longevity. They build lots of tanks but their cannon barrels wear out three times faster than other nations do.

Hey I didn't say the result would be good, I just said they could.
Let me reword it in a way that might be more palateable.
If anyone is willing to trample the necessary amount of human rights, environmental sanctity, and international relations to accomplish such feat, and posseses the resources (stolen, copied, or otherwise) to recreate something like the Panama Canal in today's world, it would be Chy-nah.

 

Considering how much of a shambles has been made of building a 100-mile long railway, I doubt it could here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66352286
The price is now about the same as building enough houses for half the population of Birmingham to move to London.

Of course HS2 was roundly condemned by the clear-eyed and non-partisan from the outset. I am just glad that the bridge to Ireland didn’t get started. I wonder if the right honourable Boris Johnson erstwhile MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip was inspired by Elon X Musk when proposing that bridge. It seems the sort of thing Elon would promote.

 

Of course HS2 was roundly condemned by the clear-eyed and non-partisan from the outset. I am just glad that the bridge to Ireland didn’t get started. I wonder if the right honourable Boris Johnson erstwhile MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip was inspired by Elon X Musk when proposing that bridge. It seems the sort of thing Elon would promote.

Wow, I didn't know about that ... are you talking about this hypothetical bridge?

 

Wow, I didn't know about that ... are you talking about this hypothetical bridge?

The very one, though I am referring to the commissioning of the 2021 study and promotion of the idea as part of the various Brexit rhetoric and diversion. But, now this seems political, and that’s not my intention, so I will refrain from further comment.