Status of the interoceanic canal study

Conference · Sat Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 1970

OSTI ID:4105231

Groves, R. H.

The studies of Atlantic-Pacific Interoceanic Sea-Level Canal Study Commission are are not as yet completed, although there is no reason at this time to doubt that the 1 December 1970 deadline for the Commission's final report will be met. Since it has not been published, I am unable to pass on to you any of its conclusions; they simply do not exist today. And it would be improper for me to reveal the substance of the Commission's deliberations to date or to speculate upon what their outcome may be. But many elements of the work being conducted under my supervision - The Engineering Feasibility Study - are already in the public domain. It is to them that my remarks here are addressed. Of the six basic routes we have considered in our studies for possible sea-level canal alinements, four could involve nuclear excavating techniques. The so-called nuclear alternatives are Route 8 along the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border, Route 17 across the Darien Isthmus of Panama, Route 23 crossing the Panama-Colombia border and Route 25 across the western tip of Colombia. The conventionally excavated routes are Route 10 west of the Panama Canal Zone and Route 14 along the alinement of the present canal. The engineering studies examine from a technical standpoint the feasibility of constructing these routes and estimate their costs. To accomplish this we have made conceptual designs for canals capable of transiting at least 40,000 vessels annually (and possibly several times that many) and of accommodating ships of up to 250,000 dwt in size. Thus, in terms of basic requirements, all alternatives - conventional and nuclear - have been made comparable. Beginning with the northernmost route, let us now consider the four nuclear alternatives. Route 8 is 137 miles in length. Its maximum elevations are slightly less than 800 feet in the Continental Divide and about 400 feet through the so-called Eastern Divide. The rock to be excavated is primarily volcanic tuff. It is readily apparent that this route is not competitive with other nuclear alternatives because of its location in a relatively well developed, built-up region. Its construction would require the evacuation of more than one-quarter million people from the exclusion area for the duration of nuclear operations and for about a year thereafter. This would almost certainly be politically unacceptable. There would be an additional requirement on shot days for the temporary evacuation of an estimated 30,000 people from high rise buildings in Managua and San Jose to avoid casualties from possible structural collapse caused by ground shock. The magnitude of these problems can be expressed to some degree in terms of the estimated cost of their resolution. In this case, they constitute a major part - $1.7 billion - of the Route 8 construction costs which we estimate to be $3.5 billion.

• Research Organization: Atlantic-Pacific Interoceanic Canal Study Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• NSA Number: NSA-24-041484
• OSTI ID: 4105231
• Report Number(s): CONF-700101--(Vol.1)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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