Proposed canal would link Pacific, Atlantic

[sfc_darrel]

Proposed canal would link Pacific, Atlantic











Managua ? The government, mired in dire financial straits, has announced a $25 billion project to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with a channel it says will offer greater capacity than the Panama Canal.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Arturo Harding said Monday that the canal could be built on one of three Nicaraguan rivers that empty into the Caribbean Sea.

He said the canal would take 10 years to build and stressed that financing would come from the private sector.

Harding said a lock would connect the river, preferably the Kukra Hill River, with another stream that empties into Cocibolca Lake and from there, another lock would link the canal with the Pacific Ocean to the west.

In 2002, a panel of experts commissioned by President Enrique Bola?os came up with a canal proposal that the chief executive has presented to foreign investors on his trips abroad, Harding said.

Bola?os will soon introduce a bill in the legislature authorizing a call for bids to build the canal.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...g30jul30.story

[usmcsgt65]

A water to water canal has been in the works for decades. In the 1960's, the USA thought about underground nuclear explosions would do the trick. The would have made a canal, but the resulting earthquakes kill off that idea. The US lost interest in late '70's, early 80's with the Contra Affair. It has been a good idea since the 1870s.