Science desk
< June 25	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 27 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 26[edit]

Why isn't the Suez Canal completely double-tracked?[edit]

As far as I can see, the Egyptian government is planning to widen and deepen the canal's section where the Ever Given got stuck, but still, there seem to be no plans by now to create a complete second fairway for the whole of the Suez Canal, making bidirectional navigation possible on the complete channel. How come this is not envisaged yet?--Hildeoc (talk) 11:41, 26 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Suez Canal Area Development Project: "The enlarged capacity allows ships to sail in both directions at the same time over much of the canal's length" Your opinion on when "much" becomes functionally indistinguishable from "complete" may vary. Remember, a significant part of the canal is actually a wide lake already. Fgf10 (talk) 12:53, 26 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

[Edit Conflict] The widening of the Ballah bypass section, which is perhaps around 1/3 of the main canal's length, alone cost around 9 Billion US dollars in 2014–15. Doubling the entire canal would cost at least several times this (perhaps someone can find a link to an estimate), and would take some considerable time in an era when piracy around Somalia has diverted some 10% of its traffic around the Cape of Good Hope, worldwide recessions (like that caused by the 2008 Credit crisis and by global pandemics) have a similar impact, the opening of the Northern Sea Route due to global warming will doubtless progressively reduce the canal traffic even further, and difficult-to-predict future changes in International trade might also have deleterious effects.

In the face of such uncertainties, investment in such a massive undertaking might be hard to find. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.59.177 (talk) 13:08, 26 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"How come this is not envisaged yet?" The question looks like a request for an opinion or prediction. See above: We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate. Dolphin (t) 13:11, 26 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Or it could be asking: "Has this idea ever been seriously proposed and, if so, what reason did the canal authority give for rejecting it?" That'd be a legitimate question. --174.94.31.124 (talk) 00:01, 27 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Unless that second fairway is physically separate from the original canal (as it is for almost half the length of the New Suez Canal), doubling the current width (given by the Suez Canal Authority as 205/225 at 11 m depth^[1]) is not enough to guarantee that no such blockage as by a ship the length of the Ever Given (400 m) can re-occur. --Lambiam 14:59, 28 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]