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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| ChiComs wants to widen Panama Canal |
| 2004-11-10 |
| From East Asia Intel, subscription req'd A delegation of Chinese officials that visited Panama last week offered to help widen the Panama Canal, according to the Independent Central American press agency. We'll widen your ditch. We have the best concrete in the world. Look how we did at 3 gorges dam! Nine members of the communist People's Congress discussed the issue with Panamanian officials. They also raise the possibility of investing in the Howard Special Economic Zone on the Pacific side of the isthmus. We would like to build a "There is no doubt in our minds that the initiative to modernize the canal will enjoy the support of its principal users, which, like China, have witnessed the innovative efforts we Panamanians have made to place ourselves in a strategic position in the development of Never crossed Jimmuh's mind, heh. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #10 The reason the canal was not built through Nicaragua is because of the seismic activity in that country. There is practically zero seismic activity in Panama. In general Panamanians are not convinced of the benefits of the expansion of the Canal due to the large amounts of land that would need to be flooded to accomodate the larger water requirements. If this is done it would have to be through referendum. BTW, important US companies also has investments in the Howard Zone, and at both sides of the Canal. Panamanians are the farthest thing from communist you can ever have. |
| Posted by: Sheila4pd 2004-11-10 11:34:22 PM |
| #9 If the global warming mob are right you will be able to send them through the NW Passage soon. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-11-10 10:48:21 PM |
| #8 Let's send Bechtel to Nicaraugua and get some real American competition going here. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-10 7:33:09 PM |
| #7 The current Gaillard (Culebra) cut widening program: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/eie/cut.html This has several very good illustrations as to the technical difficulty at one of the choke points on the current canal. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-11-10 7:19:19 PM |
| #6 I would agree about the economics of it, but there was a show on TLC recently about the canal. Amazing the options they were looking at. At the end, there was discussion of widening it b/c of future size of ships (especially supertankers). During the show, they videoed (from onboard) a Russian tanker going through and there was like 3 feet (1.5' on each side) of wiggle room through the tightest spot. It was amazing watching them squeeze it through w/o scraping the sides. Also, a few concerns were outlined about widening it, mainly the soil conditions in the area (lots of landslides) as well as the sheer amount of water it would take (in the lake nearby) to fill a wider canal (and supposedly the area has been in drought and there's some worry about where the water would come from). |
| Posted by: BA 2004-11-10 6:46:21 PM |
| #5 Our carriers haven't fit into the locks for a long time. They are 110 X 1000 feet. A Nimitz class (90-100K tons) carrier is a bit over (130ft X 1000) draught. Even a Kitty Hawk class (60K tons) won't fit in the canals. I think even the WW2 Essex class carriers had to have their anti-aircraft gun sponsons removed to fit in the canal. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-11-10 6:42:25 PM |
| #4 There are some very good and practical engineering reasons that the Panama Canal was never widened. First and foremost that it is just plain not the best place to put a canal in the first place. If you want a far better location, Nicaragua offers a better Central American route via Lake Nicaragua. The second reason is that a canal is an integrated unit--if you widen or deepen it, you must replace the locks, and probably the pumps and just about every other part. It would be far more sensible and less expensive just to make a brand new canal than widen and deepen the existing one. Even the walls of the existing canal would have to go in an upgrade. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-11-10 6:27:06 PM |
| #3 I believe most carriers already can pass through the canal. The new one, the Ron Reagon doesn't fit though, it had to go around. If most US carriers fit the dinky ones built by other countries certainly should. I don't know about supertankers though. Perhaps the Chinese could build a second canal next to the first one so they don't screw up the shipping during the construction. All of the hard work fo draining the swamps and stuff is already done now. |
| Posted by: RJ Schwarz 2004-11-10 6:17:16 PM |
| #2 Hmmm... how much wider does it need for carriers to be able to pass through? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-11-10 6:03:57 PM |
| #1 That way they can fill even more DOLLAR STORES with their exported drek... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2004-11-10 5:57:55 PM |