Posted on 10/01/2006 2:32:23 PM PDT by kellynla
A late 19th century idea has been resurrected to build a new canal in Nicaragua, at the same time Panama is planning to widen its own canal.
Nicaraguan officials say next week they will announce their $20 billion proposal to build a canal linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans that would accommodate ships too large to use the Panama Canal, according to the Los Angeles Times.
If it meets with the necessary approval by Nicaragua's Congress, the project would be a joint public-private venture financed by unnamed investors, Lindolfo Monjarretz, a spokesman for Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, told the Times.
"We will have a deeper draft than the Panama Canal and reach a different market than Panama," Monjarretz told the Times. "The construction of the canal . . . will be pushed forward by Nicaragua because it's necessary for global trade."
That contention was disputed by Rodolfo Sabonge, a top official of the Panama Canal Authority, the quasi-independent body that has run the canal since the United States turned it over to Panama in 1999. Sabonge told the Times that there was insufficient ship traffic to support both a widened Panama Canal and a second canal in Nicaragua.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I spent a little over a week there this year, and it sure didn't seem on the edge of anarchy to me.
That's a great idea. It would be more efficient too because it's closer.
Banana republic of Panama charges $1 per ton of a vessel passing through the Canal, seems cheap? Not really, an 80000 ton cruise ship pays $80000 for a passage, a 100000 ton container ship pays $100000 etc.
Panama stopped growing bananas in 70's when stupid peanut farmer from US gave up US held Canal lease good for 30+ more years.
A new Central American canal was one of the projects considered during Plowshare.
Storax-Sedan was the major test to see if nuclear devices could be used to build a canal.
They are perpetually on the brink. If the communists regain power in the next election, we will relive the 70s.
How many times have you visited there?
the US should build it's own canal at the mexican border.
2 for 1....new shipping lanes and keeps out illegals!!!
You are spamming the threads with the same comment repeatedly.
Knock it off.
'PNE' = "Peaceful Nuclear Explosions". Check Operation Plowshare for the concept. I always thought the Cape Thompson idea had promise as a 'proof of concept'.
The 1962 "Sedan" plowshares shot displaced 12 million tons of earth and created a crater 320 feet deep and 1,280 feet wide.
Sedan apparently worked like a charm. Why wasn't this technology refined?
Nicaragua presents no challenge at all!
A Ugar, a cin, a canal: Nicaragua!
Sorry ... it just doesn't work.
Uh... Carter? I beg to differ. He isn't a stupid man. He manage to to turn a failed presidental legacy into a walking billboard for tin-horn dictators all around the world.
Let's not be pigs, the Canal really belongs to the Panamanians. It is not right to hold onto a national asset like that after we got all our money back...
I know that there are some former Big Dig Boston honchos looking for work...
My significant other was down there a few years back and he said that the country sermed on the verge of another breakdown...although he did run into some casino types who were opening up casinos in country.
from what I hear Nicaragua is doing impresssively with its exports and things are looking up...although they are far below the progress of other Central American nations...and they are saddled with the fashionista Ortega who is running for something I believe...yecch!
Somebody signed a nuke test ban treaty?
yitbos
That won't be necessary. With all that "melting icecap" up in Canada, the Northwest Passage should be open soon.
Two words: Residual Radiation
Zeus a LAN a canal a Suez?
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