Via Reuters: Panama backs ambitious canal expansion plan in vote
Panamanians overwhelmingly backed a plan on Sunday to give their famous 92-year-old canal its biggest-ever overhaul, an ambitious project the government hopes will help lift the country out of poverty.The $5.25 billion face-lift allowing the inter-oceanic canal to handle mammoth modern cargo ships won four-to-one voter support in a referendum, the Central American nation’s Electoral Tribunal said.
[...]
The project needs $2.3 billion in loans or bonds to be paid back with revenues from higher tolls from ships using the canal, whose upgrade will not interrupt traffic. Construction would create 7,000 direct jobs and up to 40,000 indirect jobs.
It stands to reason that an engineering project from 1914 would need some upgrading a century later. If done properly, one would think that it would be a boon to Panama.
The NYT version of the story has a nice graphic: Panamanians Vote Overwhelmingly to Expand Canal
It also notes:
The expansion will not rely on the aid of foreign governments, an outgrowth of Panama’s desire to go it alone after decades of standing by as the Americans operated the canal. Many foreigners and Panamanians alike doubted that the Panamanian government could handle operation of the canal. But profits have grown over the last seven years, and operations have continued smoothly.
That is interesting, as I recall at one point there was some talk of Chinese investment in a potential expansion project.
And further indicates that the vote may spell doom for plans (which have been floating around for years) for a Nicaraguan canal:
Nicaragua announced last month that it was planning its own canal, although analysts doubt that its $18 billion public-private project, which would use the 60-mile-wide Lake Nicaragua, has much chance of success. Its chances might have improved had the Panama Canal expansion been rejected.
There has been talk of such a canal since the days of the building of the original Panama canal.
October 23rd, 2024 at 4:29 pm
[...] Steven Taylor at PoliBlogger has some good droll commentary on the need for the upgrade plus lots of news links in this post here. A.M. Mora y Leon @ 6:41 am | [...]
October 23rd, 2024 at 5:54 pm
A renovated(and more secure?) canal
Will the renovated canal get a security upgrade too? The Panama canal is one of the most critical waterways in the world. If terrorists were to shut it down, the economic effect would be felt world-wide. The canal needs to be upgraded for all the rea…
October 24th, 2024 at 5:52 pm
[...] Polibloger wrote about Panama’s vote to expand it’s canal and I asked my Birminghamian Panamanian interlocutor what he thought. This is it: After a vote of about 38 – 40% of the voters the expansion project was approved. I wish them success with the project. It may very well flood out a number of residents by the expansion, but that’s progress. If they hadn’t approved the project there would have been a great deal of competition from the same undertaking north of them. I think their estimate of the $5.1 Bil is going to be the big problem, as it will be quite a bit higher when completed. Galliard Cut will have to be both widened and made deeper to handle the proposed traffic. I think the locks project probably will come into the $8 to $10 Bil range, discounting the “Cut.” I know both entrances, Atlantic and Pacific, and the Pacific side will be the biggest problem. [...]