Egypt seeks to build confidence with second Suez Canal

BBC ^ | 22 January 2015 | Orla Guerin

[moose07]

"Officials say the new waterway will be a symbol of the new Egypt"

Few things in Egypt are more iconic, revered and profitable than the Suez Canal.

So in a bid to refloat the country's ailing economy, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is building another one.

He broke ground on the second Suez Canal last August, at a ceremony full of pomp and patriotism.

With fighter jets conducting aerial displays overhead, Egypt's new strongman promised it would be "a channel of prosperity".

Tight deadline

It was not plain sailing at the start.

There was some flooding at the drilling site in September. Added to that, commemorative stamps were issued featuring an image of the Panama Canal, more than 11,000km (7,000 miles) away.

Since then the project has moved into high gear, with building work around the clock.

President Sisi has decreed that the new waterway will be completed in one.

Egyptian officials say the deadline will be met, and the first ship will navigate through the new canal in early August 2015.

Video and pics at site:

[moose07]

Suez Canal project
$8.5bn

raised for canal expansion project
$13.2bn

projected revenue by 2023 (up from $5.3bn)
72km of new channel and bypasses

97 ships a day by 2023 (up from 49)

11-hour southbound transit (down from 18)

12 months to complete project by Aug 2015

[2ndDivisionVet]

A New Canal Through Central America Could Have Devastating Consequences: The ramifications of the proposed route have environmentalists worried, and for good reason
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-canal-through-central-america-could-have-devastating-consequences-180953394/#KILz6oZuOj2RwxYM.99

[moose07]

Not to mention the dozens of villages destroyed along the planned route.
If that lake is a major source of drinking water ,polluting it isn’t a wise idea....but follow the money. China.
If they can’t eat it ,they wreck it.

[Gen.Blather]

If you’re an enemy of the present regime then sabotaging the canal represents significant low cost, low risk leverage for taking down Sisi. Let’s hope he can pull it off.

Also, Iran has an estimated 70,000 mines intended to isolate Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. If they mine the Red Sea it will do in Egypt, not to mention the secondary impacts on the world economy. Once they go nuclear what are we going to do about it? Hint, what did we do about North Korea’s sinking of the Chonan?

[leopardseal]

So far, El-Sisi has done everything right. The market demand for doubling the throughput of the canal IS there.

[maine-iac7]

HAs anyone yet expressed that, but for the Egyptian peoples overthrow of O’bummer’s MB installed regime, the Caliphate would be be well on it’s way to completion? Had they not been overthrown, control of the most strategic land mass in Africa and of the Suez - along with Libya - for the past 2-3 years, we (the world) would be in a much worse pickle by now...not to mention what would have happened to Israel by now.

[Star Traveler]

Is Egypt building a new canal in Central America?!

[Sequoyah101]

I’ve always wondered how much dredging it takes to keep that thing open?

[2ndDivisionVet]

No, Red China is.

[moose07]

Well, i doubt either of us would want the bill for it. :)
Link to site
The dredging Debartment owns a fleet of 12 multitype dredgers. The fleet has carried out the regular dredging works along the SC and its approaches and the waiting areas in the lakes ,together with the development projects to increas the maximum permissible draught for the transiting vessels. The SC dredger's fleet had carried out many projects inside and outside Egypt such as dredging works in the Egyptian ports (Damietta & Dekhella) and in the dredging works in Libya and Syria.

[Impy]

They are also building a new capital city in the middle of nowhere.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31874886

Insane waste of money.

Better than the Muslim brotherhood though.

[SunkenCiv]

Egypt added a second ship channel to part of the Suez Canal in 2015, but the Ever Given was beached on a separate section of the canal that wasn’t expanded
https://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-expanded-suez-canal-ever-given-stuck-2021-3

[FreedomPoster]

Of course it was, it was an intentional act.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3945728/posts?page=77#77

[SunkenCiv]

There was a big wind, dust, low visibility, they didn’t steer right. Of course it wasn’t intentional. Crew incompetence probably means reassignment, firing, or some “must have fallen overboard” type accident after the company has to pay massive fines.

[GOPJ]

Wasn’t it the Chinese who wanted the canal through Nicaragua? Primarily as part of their war effort against the United States?