Panama Canal Expansion Likely to Pass

[Frodo]

Panama Canal expansion likely to pass

By WILL WEISSERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- A referendum to expand the Panama Canal appeared headed for easy approval Sunday, as thousands of supporters in green "Yes" T-shirts cast ballots endorsing the largest modernization project in the 92-year history of the shortcut between the seas.

Polls showed Panamanians overwhelmingly support the $5.25 billion upgrade.

The overhaul would allow the canal to handle modern container ships, cruise liners and tankers that are too large for its current 108-foot-wide locks by building a third set of locks on the Pacific and Atlantic ends by 2015.

The Panama Canal Authority, the autonomous government agency that runs the canal, says the project will double the capacity of a waterway already on pace to generate about $1.4 billion this year. Expansion will be paid for by increasing tolls and take in more than $6 billion annually in revenue by 2025.

"Voting 'no' is like closing the door on the canal. It's the top source of income for Panama and improving it means more money for the government and less poverty," said Leonardo Aspira, a boat salesman who sported a "Yes" shirt and baseball hat in Kuna Nega, a largely Indian town of dirt roads and banana trees on the outskirts of Panama City.

The canal employs 8,000 workers and the expansion is expected to generate as many as 40,000 construction jobs. Unemployment in Panama is 9.5 percent, and 40 percent of the country lives in poverty.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As long as they don't try to make it a sea-level canal, I have no problems with that.  I have to wonder tho, if Ortega wins this November in Nicaragua, will Chavez provide fnancing for a Nicaraguan Canal?

[MODU]

With over 90% of the vote counted, it looks like the Expansion proposal will pass with 80% of the vote (on CNN.com).

[John Dibble]

Not surprising in the least really - when, if ever, did the canal last get an overhaul?

[MODU]

Not surprising in the least really - when, if ever, did the canal last get an overhaul?

I remember it being under expansion in the mid 1990's.  They were widening the canal throughways between the locks to allow more room for the ships to pass during the crossings.  I don't recall any other construction efforts beyond that though, and my friend who works with the canal company didn't mention anything when I talked with him last year.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Not surprising in the least really - when, if ever, did the canal last get an overhaul?

I remember it being under expansion in the mid 1990's.  They were widening the canal throughways between the locks to allow more room for the ships to pass during the crossings.  I don't recall any other construction efforts beyond that though, and my friend who works with the canal company didn't mention anything when I talked with him last year.

There have been two major construction efforts to improve the Panama Canal over the years.  The first was in the early 1930's and built Madden Dam and the resulting Alhajuela Lake.  Alhajuela Lake is used to keep Gatun Laken from falling too low during the dry winter season.  The other was an effort durng World War II to widen the canal and build new bigger locks.  The work started in 1939 but sputtered once we got into the war as resources got diverted elsewhere and eventually the project was cancelled atthe end of the war.  The new effort will be making use of the preperatory work and excavations that were made then, just as we made use of the earlier French efforts to help build the original canal.

[AkSaber]

Neat!!! They won't make us pay for it, will they?

And don't ask me why, but stuff like this really interests me, especially with roads. My interest has been peaked lately, since Anchorage has agreed with Alaska on a 10 year transportation plan to do some major connection jobs on Anchorage's road grid. East Anchorage has pretty big traffic congestion problems. And Anchorage is getting ready to do some serious work on the Seward Highway as well. And on the Glenn Highway too!!

So......... I guess you could say I'm a road geek.

[MODU]

Not surprising in the least really - when, if ever, did the canal last get an overhaul?

I remember it being under expansion in the mid 1990's.  They were widening the canal throughways between the locks to allow more room for the ships to pass during the crossings.  I don't recall any other construction efforts beyond that though, and my friend who works with the canal company didn't mention anything when I talked with him last year.

There have been two major construction efforts to improve the Panama Canal over the years.  The first was in the early 1930's and built Madden Dam and the resulting Alhajuela Lake.  Alhajuela Lake is used to keep Gatun Laken from falling too low during the dry winter season.  The other was an effort durng World War II to widen the canal and build new bigger locks.  The work started in 1939 but sputtered once we got into the war as resources got diverted elsewhere and eventually the project was cancelled atthe end of the war.  The new effort will be making use of the preperatory work and excavations that were made then, just as we made use of the earlier French efforts to help build the original canal.

Yeah.  I was thinking more along the lines of recent construction.

[MasterJedi]

They probably should have done this awhile ago but better late then never.

[kashifsakhan]

this is going to do alot of good for the economy and country in the long run.

There might be some negative affects in the next few years, but overall it'll do more good than harm.

[Huckleberry Finn]

As long as they don't try to make it a sea-level canal, I have no problems with that.  I have to wonder tho, if Ortega wins this November in Nicaragua, will Chavez provide fnancing for a Nicaraguan Canal?

Nicaraquan Canal would be an economical and ecological catastrophe, but Panama expansion is probably OK.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As long as they don't try to make it a sea-level canal, I have no problems with that.  I have to wonder tho, if Ortega wins this November in Nicaragua, will Chavez provide fnancing for a Nicaraguan Canal?

Nicaraquan Canal would be an economical and ecological catastrophe, but Panama expansion is probably OK.

Since when have economic or ecological catastrophes kept governments from doing something?

[MODU]

As long as they don't try to make it a sea-level canal, I have no problems with that.  I have to wonder tho, if Ortega wins this November in Nicaragua, will Chavez provide fnancing for a Nicaraguan Canal?

Nicaraquan Canal would be an economical and ecological catastrophe, but Panama expansion is probably OK.

Since when have economic or ecological catastrophes kept governments from doing something?

hahaha . . . true, since the Panama Canal was once labeled just such a thing when it was started.  I would be interested to see where a canal would go in Nicaragua.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

From the Nicaraguan canal commission website:

The six routes considered:


Elevation plan for the prefered route #3:


The Nicraguans are estimating a construction cost of $18 billion or around 300 million barrels of oil if Venezuela were to finance it (about 100 days worth of Venezuelan oil output)  Assuming that the cost estimate is no worse than 100% off, it would be within the range of things Chavez could try to do to gain prestige, and it would be a lot more productive in the long term than most of his stunts.  Given the cost involved, a Nicaraguan Canal, even at the low $18 billion price tag quoted by the Nicaraguan govenment, I can see being built only for political reasons, and Chavez is the only one at present with both the money and the possible political reasons to do so.

[MODU]

Thanks.    I'll have to study this one.