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William T. Love came to 1890s Niagara Falls, New York, with hugely ambitious plans. The landowner and entrepreneur envisioned the creation of an enormous utopian metropolis. His city would be home to enviable industry, and housing for more than a million people. Thousands of acres would become "the most extensive and beautiful [park] in the world". He planned to power the city using hydroelectric dams on a new 11-kilometer canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers. Within a year, however, Love's plans failed, and would quickly have been forgotten if it weren't for one problem. The one part of...

PANAMA CITY, Oct 20, 2006 (AFP) - The Panama Canal is set for a major overhaul if voters Sunday approve a 5.25-billion-dollar plan to widen the strategic waterway to accommodate modern mega-ships. Proponents say the canal will reach capacity in 2012 and that its expansion is critical in the face of competition from other maritime routes. The government says the work would be financed by a hike in tolls, worth 1.2 billion dollars in 2005. Polls predict a victory of more than 70 percent in favor of the expansion in Sunday's referendum. "We are optimistic," said Rodolfo Sabonge, the director...

PANAMA CITY, Sep 30 (IPS) - On Oct. 22, Panamanians will head to the polls in a referendum to decide the future and possible expansion of the Panama Canal, the main economic driver of this country of three million people. The canal is expected to generate 1.4 billion dollars in the 2006 fiscal year, of which 560 million will go to the state coffers. According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the proposed expansion would increase these revenues to 6.23 billion dollars by 2025, boosting treasury contributions to up to 4.19 billion. If to this year's 560 million are added...

PANAMA will hold a referendum in three weeks to decide whether the Panama Canal will be expanded. However, Enrique Sanchez, manager of the Contracting Division of the Panama Canal Authority said yesterday that polls conducted across the Central American country, have shown overwhelming support for its expansion. If the project gets the green-light, it will be self financed at an estimated cost of US$5.25 billion. Gross revenue generated by the Canal for fiscal 2005/6 (fiscal year ends September 30, 2006), reached US$1.4 billion, with the Panamanian Government netting approximately US$600 million of that figure. "The Panama Canal has turned out...

This view is expressed in a new study that has forecast North American container port demand nearly double in 10 years with most pressure falling on Pacific Coast ports. UK-based Ocean Shipping Consultants predicts demand to increase by up to 85 per cent to 85.7m TEU over 2005-15, and by a further 31 percent to 112.3m TEU over 2015-20. Even an increased-risk/protectionist scenario, incorporating a significant downturn in GDP expansion over 2011-15, would yield a container port demand increase of 55 percent to 71.8m TEU over 2005-15, with 25 percent growth over 2015-20, to 89.7m TEU In its report Containerport...

A late 19th century idea has been resurrected to build a new canal in Nicaragua, at the same time Panama is planning to widen its own canal. Nicaraguan officials say next week they will announce their $20 billion proposal to build a canal linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans that would accommodate ships too large to use the Panama Canal, according to the Los Angeles Times. If it meets with the necessary approval by Nicaragua's Congress, the project would be a joint public-private venture financed by unnamed investors, Lindolfo Monjarretz, a spokesman for Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, told the...

Panama is planning to build a deeper, wider Panama Canal to allow Communist Chinese super-containerships carrying cheap 21st century slave-labor under-market goods to have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and key NAFTA/CAFTA ports such as Miami. In the shipping industry, Panamex container ships are defined as those that are able to fit through the 1,000-foot long and 110-foot wide canal. Typically, Panamex containerships were designed to carry 4,500 TEU (“Twenty Foot Units,” the length measurement of the standard ocean steel container). The first generation of post-Panamex container ships was built to carry up to 9,800 TEU. Today, a...

USS IWO JIMA , At Sea (NNS) -- USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) and USS Nashville (LPD 13), both assigned to the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), successfully and safely transited the Suez Canal, Aug. 20. As part of Commander, Task Force 59, both ships, and Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) (MEU(SOC)) provided crucial departure assistance to American citizens in Lebanon looking to leave the troubled region. USS Cole (DDG 67) and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) remained on station off Lebanon, ready to provide additional assistance as needed. “Every Sailor and Marine...

USS IWO JIMA, At Sea (NNS) -- The Iwo Jima (LHD 7) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) passed through the Suez Canal, July 4, entering the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations (AOO). The ESG will conduct maritime security operations (MSO) throughout the region and support further tasking from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). “We're ready to begin our taskings in support of [MSO],” said Capt. Sinclair M. Harris, commodore of Amphibious Squadron 4. “Our months of training will be used to support [U.S. Naval Forces Central Command].” MSO help set the conditions for security and stability in the maritime environment,...

Sewage pumping Into canal A Honolulu man is near death after falling into waters contaminated by the massive sewage spill in the Ala Wai Canal. His friends said they are convinced the polluted water in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor made him sick. How the man went into the dirty Ala Wai Harbor is not clear. It happened last week. There may have been some kind of altercation. However, he is gravely ill now with a flesh-eating bacteria infection, according to his friends. Oliver Johnson, 34, was fit and healthy, a surfer and runner.Thursday night he was walking near...

A $59 million jail featuring art and flat screen TVs in Portland, Ore., has been sitting unused for more than a year as the city can't afford to open it. The Wapato Facility took two years to construct and can house 525 inmates at a cost of $20 million per year, .... The county spent more than $600,000 on art for the jail, including a sculpture out front by the circular driveway. There are 30-foot vaulted ceilings and private showers. "I love coming to an empty $59-million jail," Giusto told the Los Angeles Times. "I get tired of telling people...

The Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu-Musa Islands are situated near the Straight of Hurmuz in the Persian Gulf, south of Iran. The Lesser Tunb is 22 miles from the mainland of Iran. The Lesser Tunb is 17 miles from the Iranian land. Both of them are not able to sustain living and they had never inhabitants. Abu- Musa is the home for a limited number of people (less than 50 households). The Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu-Musa Islands have been part of Iran since the times immemorial. In the Nineteenth Century, they were parts of the "Lengheh Territory"...

Some of the trucks, front-end loaders, and giant back-hoes provided by the Non-Construction Sector for ongoing maintenance of the Sweet Water Canal in southern Iraq. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division photo. Canal Projects Deliver Water, Self-sufficiency Work to ensure the Sweet Water Canal water quality and reliability also provides local Iraqis the tools necessary to maintain this resource. By Denise CalabriaGulf Region DivisionU.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005 — Due to the desert-like climate and high salinity of water in southern Iraq, two million residents of Basrah have long relied upon the...

New Orleans Levee Failure Analysis - Part V Contents Introduction and Basic Levee Construction, Section and Elevation Details Section 1. Pre-Landfall Flooding in Kenner and Western Metairie of East Jefferson Parish Section 2. Analysis of the 17th Street and London Canal Breaches and Post Katrina Flood Sequence in Downtown New Orleans Section 3. Surge Sequence for the Industrial Canal Basin, Analysis of the Five Major Breaches and east Orleans Parish Flooding Section 4. Flood Sequence for St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward, MRGO Reach Failure Analysis Section 5. Contributory Causality, Political and Funding Issues Leading to Levee Failures...

This is part four of a five part series examining the Hurricane Katrina levee failures. Part 1 is a timeline sequence of who reported what flood events, to whom, and when it was reported. It can be found here: Part I: Hurricane Katrina Flood Report Sequence Part 2 is a discussion of the levee system's viability, or lack thereof, prior to Hurricane Katrina. It can be found here: Part II: Pre-Katrina Levee Assessment Part 3 is a discussion of the overall storm surge sequence, levee failure modes, and causal limitations relating to the 17th Street Canal and London Canal seawall...

I am trying to help a friend write an article, but we need a graphic that we both once saw. Does anyone know of a map that shows the location of Chinese owned ports in the western hemisphere that they have taken over in the last 10 years?

ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- Sheriff investigators have identified the body of a woman found in a suitcase floating in a ditch Saturday afternoon and have arrested a Fort Pierce man for allegedly killing his former girlfriend. Investigators identified the body as Joanne Banks, 45, of Port St. Lucie. Detectives arrested Francis Shevlin, 72, of Fort Pierce, less than 12 hours after her body was discovered, reports show.

A scheme to make the shallow strait between India and Sri Lanka navigable has upset environmentalists and the port of Colombo. To its supporters, it is a dream project, no less than the “Suez of the east”; to its opponents it is an environmental catastrophe. Either way, plans to dredge a channel in the seabed between India and Sri Lanka will be controversial, and could alter maritime and military operations in the Indian Ocean. The $400m project, called the Sethusamudram Ship Canal, involves digging a 152km, 300m-wide channel through the Palk Strait, a shallow stretch of sea separating the south...

The girl of the Noriega General named with the consulate from Panama in Miami PANAMA - One of the girls of the former strong man of Panama, the Manual General Noriega, was named as diplomat with the consulate from Panama in Miami, announced the minister panaméen Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis. His/her father is imprisoned there since 1990. Sandra Noriega "is a qualified person who has the right to serve her country", affirmed Friday the minister. The father of the diplomat directed Panama of 1981 to 1989, after death in an air crash of the president panaméen Omar Torrijos, father...

LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. - An alien species of catfish has been caught in the Delaware Raritan Canal, prompting fears among environmental officials that the voracious predator could devastate native catfish, sunfish and some sturgeon populations the way it has in southeastern states. "The threat of the flathead is significant," Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell said in a statement Wednesday. "Anglers should report any catches or sightings of this fish to the Department." In the southeast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the flathead as its highest priority among invasive animal species, the DEP reported. Flatheads, which...