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Seeing systems like the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal in operation is impressive. These channels allow large merchant ships (whether oil tankers or container ships) to shorten their journeys, and recently its importance has been demonstrated. With the conflicts in the Suez Canalthe boats they had to make a detour through southern Africa, making transportation more expensive and delaying deliveries. In the Panama Canal, the problem was the drought.
They are very important strategic points (without going any further, they esteem than 40% of containers from the United States pass through it). Now, and after 15 years of bickering, Europe will undertake the pharaonic works of its own canal: the Seine-North Canal.
Historical needs. For several centuries, Paris has demanded a better river communication route between its metropolitan area and the north of the country. It is something that would maximize transport in the Benelux area and, therefore, a better connection with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and northwest Germany. The idea was to take advantage of the connection of the Seine with the Scheldt, which flows into the North Sea and opens many commercial possibilities between the French capital and much of Europe.
Seine-North Canal. Over the centuries, canals were created that connected with Paris, but as the barges increased in size and weight, the Northern Canal, which linked Paris with the Dunkirk-Scheldt canal and which allowed the supply of coal , it became small. In the middle of the last century it was concluded that a new canal would be needed in Paris, taking advantage of the Seine and, after a public consultation, in 1997 it was concluded that this canal would be the Seine-Nord Canal.
In 2004, this canal was one of the 30 priority projects of the trans-European transport network, but luck was not on its side. It was time to start the project, but some modifications had to be made and, in 2008, when the Seine-Norte canal had been declared of public utility, the economic crisis arrived.
Issues. Initially, the cost My dear was 4.3 billion euros that were going to come from a public-private partnership, but with the delays, in 2013 a new estimate was made by the General Inspection of Finance and the General Council of the Environment and Sustainable Development that put the brakes on to the project. The initial cost had been underrated: The new, more realistic numbers reached 7 billion euros. A restructuring of it began because it was something that was still necessary.
The European Union came into play and confirmed in 2015 that it would finance the first phase of the canal works with up to 42% of the budget. With this injection of money, the authorities hoped to start the works in 2017, but a few weeks before the start of the works, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, who had just come to office, paralyzed. The project was relaunched a few weeks later and the next three years went through different offices, but in 2020 it was agreed that the works would begin in 2023 with an inauguration in 2030.
Numbers. In the end, the Seine-North canal will connect the Seine with the ports of Dunkirk, Antwerp, Rotterdam and the rest of northern Europe thanks to a 107-kilometer route with broad gauge connections. The project, in the end, will cost 5,000 million euros (closer to the initial figures) with a distribution of 2,100 million euros from the European Union, 1,100 million from the regions through which the canal passes, another 1,100 million of the state and 800 million of debt.
The canal will pass through 64 municipalities, it will have seven locks, it will be necessary to build three bridges over roads so that they can pass, another 62 bridges so that roads and railways can cross from one side to the other, 45 eco-bridges so that fauna can also cross and it will have a width of 54 meters with a depth of 4.5 meters. It is a pharaonic work that will also have 10 ports and a water reserve of 14 million cubic meters.
Do you want more? There will be 75 kilometers of hedge so that the canal does not conflict with the landscape, 850,000 trees will be planted and there will be 200 kilometers of pedestrian areas for walking.
High-flying goals. But all this… for what? One of the great conflicts of the project was the criticism of its necessity. According to the organization of the canal itself, is something that will reduce the number of trucks on French roads by one million each year. Transportation will allow more than 17 million tons to be transported by 2035.
All of this will help decongest the Northern Highway and create employment during its construction, as well as thousands of other jobs in the logistics and industrial sector once it is completed. Another advantage is that it can be a relief from flooding, as well as a way to transport water between areas that, at some point, are most in need.
Reviews. But if the project has been so delayed, it is not only because of the offices, the budget and the archaeological research (which has made it possible to find vestiges of Roman roads and objects from the Middle Ages). And the fiercest is something that has been dubbed a false truck economy. From the canal, they defend that they will decongest highways, but critics comment that the goods transported by truck and by boat are different and that the one they will really compete with is the train.
Transport by ship pollutes less than by truck, but more than rail transport and information On the contrary, they claim that the canal will eliminate 40% of freight traffic by train, but it will only relieve 3% of truck freight, so… there will still be many on the roads.
Environment. In any case, the canal company affirms that everything will be environmental advantages because they will save 50 million tons of CO₂ by 2040 (helping decarbonization objectives), they will not take water from underground reserves and all the water used in The floodgates will be recycled.
For now, the preliminary works they started in 2022, but now is when work on the locks has begun, which is the most critical phase of the project. Whether critics like it or not, and after 20 years of delays, the Seine-Norte canal is now a reality. Or it will be in 2030.
Images | Seine-Nord Canal, somme, Seine-Nord Europe Canal
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