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Comment by Dylan16807 | Hacker News Reader

What lesson is that?

Would it have been cheaper to build and maintain two canals? And it's not the end of the world if ships have to go the long way.

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Interestingly, there's at least a possibility for a Nicaragua Canal as a redundancy for the Panama Canal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_Canal

Doubt there's any alternate paths for a Suez Canal.

you could cut across the egypt/israel border from the gulf of aqaba.

It would be something like ten times the length of Suez, and I think there are mountains in the middle, but it would be pretty cool! :)

The Norwegians are already planning a tunnel for boats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stad_Ship_Tunnel

"In March 2021, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications gave approval for preparations to begin, with the Norwegian Coastal Administration expecting construction to begin in 2022."

Norway, where else! They seem to have an entirely different relation to tunneling than the rest of humanity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drammen_Spiral

And there are canal tunnels already - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_tunnel

It's been proposed before! https://www.jpost.com/opinion/an-israeli-suez-canal-393225

It would be less than 3x the length, not 10x. The mountains are a problem; it could go around but would still need to dig a lot. And it doesn't seem feasible politically right now, but it could be a really cool project.

(If it was built, then a side-canal to irrigate the Dead Sea would be a relatively cheap value-add.)

Wow, in a list of astoundingly bad ideas, cutting a path for large container ships through a pristine freshwater lake will probably rank at the top.

I love pristine lakes too but we should look at the cost/benefit before deciding.

A pristine lake doesn’t have infinite value, right?

So, what's the going rate for pristine lakes nowadays?

It’s actually really high since you’d be ruining the enjoyment of the lake for all future generations plus the fact that you can’t predict how much enjoyment they would get from it.

But if there were enough benefits it could still be worth it. Brining 50k people out of poverty for example? Reducing trucking pollution by a large amount.

Best I can do is about tree fiddy.

It depends on who's point of view we're evaluating it from. I haven't looked, but suppose there is an endangered species which call the lake home, perhaps that is the only place they inhabit. Putting them one oil spill away from existence.

A large portion of the channel has been upgraded into two lanes in the last few years.

Well maybe....make the Suez Canal wider? Like, double the width, so if this happens again ships can pass?

Or would it just lead to ships being made that can accomodate the entire width of the super-wide canal? :P

Look at Panama Canal: its dimensions have defined container ships since...well...since it was built (see "Panamax"). When a new and improved set of locks was built, New Panamax ships (i.e. "juust large enough to fit the new maxima") were launched.

Well I suppose that has a very simple solution - make the canal wider so that even if a ship runs into a side others can pass, but leave the entry points on both ends the same width.

Maybe more like having a stockpile of essential parts may be beneficial if something like this or Corona happens.

If you're relying on intercontinental cargo ships then you probably already know you need to have a buffer, whether you actually have one or not.

Also, for some businesses it may just not make sense as the cost of stockpiling is more than the occasional loss of productivity.

Name one thing that you, as a consumer, have not been able to get a consequence of the Seuz being blocked?

With the delay, it might still come to us.

Why are you restricting this to consumers? There are plenty of businesses getting hurt by this.

Gas at $2.79/gal

Just to give you one example, there is a months worth of raw material for FFP2 masks on there somewhere.

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