Nicaragua Canal

[Tetro Kornbluth]

So apparently this is happening now... and the origins don't sound good

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The whole scheme seems.... a bit mad and to the benefit of whom

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Not to mention other problems

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Contains promises of magic ponies

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Also here skepticism is expressed about the value of such a canal

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Worth Repeating

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I'm amazed I only heard of this now. This seems a big international news story. Discuss it here.

(Also, as an aside, on the Chinese connection: Nicaragua is actually one of those countries that still recognizes the ROC, fwiw).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

There have been protests

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A not totally unfamiliar story, no?

[Boston Bread]

Sounds like it won't get of the ground. It won't right?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Sounds like it won't get of the ground. It won't right?

Well, they've just started on it. But possibly not much further.

[Simfan34]

This is all happening while Nicaragua still recognises the ROC?! I assume we ought to remember who is running the country right now... I'm surprised, with that in mind, the ROC has managed to linger there for that long.

[Beet]

Sounds like a pipe dream... the Chinese government learned in Myanmar that you can't just rely on a corrupt agreement with one government to guarantee a long term infrastructure project over indigenous objections, yet this one supposedly normal citizen from Beijing thinks he can pull it off? I suppose I give him credit for sheer audacity, but my guess is this won't be completed. It just makes too little economic sense, except as a sort of broken windows make-work project. It could end up as a giant boondoggle that scars the country for decades. What is the motive for an alternative to Panama, anyway?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Sounds like a pipe dream... the Chinese government learned in Myanmar that you can't just rely on a corrupt agreement with one government to guarantee a long term infrastructure project over indigenous objections, yet this one supposedly normal citizen from Beijing thinks he can pull it off? I suppose I give him credit for sheer audacity, but my guess is this won't be completed. It just makes too little economic sense, except as a sort of broken windows make-work project. It could end up as a giant boondoggle that scars the country for decades. What is the motive for an alternative to Panama, anyway?

The Panama canal is in desperate need of widening IIRC.

[MaxQue]

Sounds like a pipe dream... the Chinese government learned in Myanmar that you can't just rely on a corrupt agreement with one government to guarantee a long term infrastructure project over indigenous objections, yet this one supposedly normal citizen from Beijing thinks he can pull it off? I suppose I give him credit for sheer audacity, but my guess is this won't be completed. It just makes too little economic sense, except as a sort of broken windows make-work project. It could end up as a giant boondoggle that scars the country for decades. What is the motive for an alternative to Panama, anyway?

The Panama canal is in desperate need of widening IIRC.

They began widening works in 2007 and should finish in 2016. I suspect ports in America and Western Europe will upgrade for it, too (to be able to receive the new, widened ships).

[Frodo]

Sounds like a pipe dream... the Chinese government learned in Myanmar that you can't just rely on a corrupt agreement with one government to guarantee a long term infrastructure project over indigenous objections, yet this one supposedly normal citizen from Beijing thinks he can pull it off? I suppose I give him credit for sheer audacity, but my guess is this won't be completed. It just makes too little economic sense, except as a sort of broken windows make-work project. It could end up as a giant boondoggle that scars the country for decades. What is the motive for an alternative to Panama, anyway?

The Panama canal is in desperate need of widening IIRC.

The expansion project is more than 80% completed.  

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Sounds like a pipe dream... the Chinese government learned in Myanmar that you can't just rely on a corrupt agreement with one government to guarantee a long term infrastructure project over indigenous objections, yet this one supposedly normal citizen from Beijing thinks he can pull it off? I suppose I give him credit for sheer audacity, but my guess is this won't be completed. It just makes too little economic sense, except as a sort of broken windows make-work project. It could end up as a giant boondoggle that scars the country for decades. What is the motive for an alternative to Panama, anyway?

The Panama canal is in desperate need of widening IIRC.

They began widening works in 2007 and should finish in 2016. I suspect ports in America and Western Europe will upgrade for it, too (to be able to receive the new, widened ships).

You're right, I was mistaken. I have been hearing about the project for years, but what really needs widening is the ports of Miami and Palm Beach ahead of the completion of the Canal works. My dad ships trucks to Haiti, the Dominican Republic (and soon, Cuba), so I hear a good deal about the ports and the canal and it blurs together in my head.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The new locks will help, but what the Panama Canal could really use is a widening of the Culebra Cut. Even the old Panamax ships can't pass each other in it, let alone larger ships designed to the new Panamax limits.