Panama begins 5.25 billion dollar canal expansion

Source: AFP

Panama begins 5.25 billion dollar canal expansion
4 hours ago

PANAMA CITY (AFP) — Construction got underway Monday on a 5.25 billion dollar project to modernize and expand the Panama Canal, considered one of the world's engineering wonders.

The project will double the capacity of the 50-mile (80-kilometer) canal, built between 1904-1914 by the United States, which handed control of the waterway to Panama in December 1999.

Panamanian President Martin Torrijos on Monday hosted former US president Jimmy Carter at a ceremony marking the start of the expansion, which is expected to take about 10 years to complete.

Also attending the ceremony were Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Salvadoran President Elias Saca and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.




Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jz_jbk1D7C3eWhQ5QBlnUbjVm5tQ

A hell of an accomplishment building that.

who were going to finance a second canal that would have made the US's canal a lot less valuable.

They really like Americans too. I had such a great time there that I've considered eventually retiring there. I'm glad they're going through with the expansion plans - the ships already going through there are huge, but there are some which already are too large to get through.

Nicaragua weighs digging own canal

SAN JORGE, Nicaragua -- Dusting off a dream that dates back five centuries, Nicaragua wants to build an $18 billion alternative to the increasingly overloaded Panama Canal.

Officials are drafting legislation, conducting feasibility studies and lobbying internationally for the project, first considered by Spanish explorers who scanned the Central American coast in the 1500s for a navigable waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

"The prospect of having something like this is probably better now than at any time in the past," said Marc J. Hershman, an international shipping expert at the University of Washington School of Marine Affairs. "There's huge growth in cargo shipping around the globe, and it's going to accelerate more and more."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20061019/ai_n16806744

That's just one of many links. The main idea at present is that China provides the funding. If it went ahead it would help lift Nicagagua out of being such a poor nation in monetary terms - not in spirit as I think they may be ok there now Daniel's back.

...once the sea ice in the Arctic melts away some more.

decline in earnest.