Will the expansion of the Panama Canal for larger ships that normally could only port on the west coast affect rail now that the ships can port on the East?? Especially a decrease in intermodal? I hope not.
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The canal will still be a bottleneck. Only so many ships can pass in a given period of time. If demand increases, it will be easier (and cheaper) to expand the rail infrastructure than to continue to try to expand the canal.
Plus, unless east coast ports are expanded, that will be another bottleneck.
Rusty
There are bottlenecks everywhere...chicago is no better.
since bigger container ships will now use the canel,the eastern railroads are gearing up for the increased business. N.S. 's poky and the CSX's current clearence project on the B&O are a result of the expected rise in container traffic-jim
Yep, there's an article in the local news here about CSX expanding the tunnel under Virginia Ave SE in DC so they can double track container trains through the tunnel. Evidently they're expecting a bit more container traffic as a result of the bigger canal.
Originally Posted by CWEX:
There are bottlenecks everywhere...chicago is no better.
The Ann Arbor (and other railroads) made a lot of cash by running car ferries across Lake Michigan in order to bypass congestion in Chicago. Reducing delays there was part of what led to their demise. It is ironic that Chicago is once again a bottleneck.
Most definitely. Both the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore (built by the B&O in the 19th century) and the CSX Tunnel in D.C. have been featured in recent articles discussing the issues and problems. No agreed on solutions yet, and there several workarounds being considered if the tunnels themselves aren’t re-built.
A long time ago ships were not that big.
Cost cutting leads to bigger ships that can haul more for the money.
It does not matter how big you make a canal if you cannot double or triple the capacity.
Building very large cargo ships is actually a self defeating exercise.
Imagine for a moment a imaginary ship capable of bringing 100,000 boxes through. Loading such a mammoth would require a dozen cranes two days or more.
Such a ship would replace Ten 10,000 box ships using the canal today.
Therefore the money set out to invest in the canal will not be repaid until 10 100,000 container ships use it daily.
If we are going to grow trade and commerce to those levels it must be priced at a level anyone even in the most dirt village can afford to use anywhere in the world.
It will be generations until those needs are met.
As far as Baltimore and other sites, I fear that you must demo and raze whatever is necessary in the name of National Need such as they did for the GWB in NYC.
That will be cheaper and easier than trying to mine through under the city filled with three hundred years worth of waste, haz mat etc. I point to the Subway under Broadway near Hopkins as a example. They hit old storage tanks that once held gas and such. The fumes made for a very slow, dangerous progress during construction.
It would be better to build a 60 mile bridge across the Bering Straits and run rail down to China and points south.
That will be a far fitting and greater adventure than some old canal that once served a great need.
Shorter and faster too.
Now the new locks will be directional running, because they are only one set. The old locks were bidirectional because there are two sets at both ends.
Also, the Atlantic end of the canal is actual the western end of the system.
On the Delaware river, Philadelphia and below they are in the process of dredging the channel another five feet. I think that will take the channel down to fourty-five feet. Well judging by the size of ships we get now and how big the supper tankers and cargo ships are today I can't see them coming up as far as Philly even with the extra five foot.
Dose anyone know how deep the water must be to accommodate the really big ships?
Aren't they going to be operating both sets of locks...the new and the old?
Originally Posted by DominicMazoch:
Now the new locks will be directional running, because they are only one set. The old locks were bidirectional because there are two sets at both ends.
Also, the Atlantic end of the canal is actual the western end of the system.
the dredging here in Charleston SC is going to 65 feet because the bigger ships are40-45 feet in the water.
they are busy .redoing docks making new ones and making new rail yards to ship the containers inland
Mario, no problem as they are going to grease the channel with Philly Cheesesteaks and Scrapple!
