Major Projects

[The Rock Doctor]

...For people looking for ways to spend their cash and BP...

[The Rock Doctor]

St. Lawrence Seaway

Nation(s):  Northern Kingdom; Confederation as a potential partner along part of the route.
Location:  St. Lawrence River between Iroquois, ON and Saint Lambert, QC
Length:  600 km/370mi
Elevation difference:  ~64 metres

Cost:

Historical Excavation:  ~42 million cubic metres = $10.5
Lock requirements (230m as historical):  8 lock-pairs; half price for a lock = $23 * 16 * 0.5 = $184 and 18.4 BP
======
Total cost:  $194.50 and 18.4 BP

Provinces opened to shipping: 10 around Lake Ontario
Note:  Access to Lake Erie requires Welland Canal
Note:  Alternate access to Huron was historically contemplated

[The Rock Doctor]

Welland Canal

Nations:  Confederation territory, but of interest to Northern Kingdom and Zwiazek Wilno
Location:  Port Colborne ON to Port Weller ON; Niagara Peninsula
Length:  43 km
Height drop:  99.5m (12 locks needed)

Cost:

Excavation for historical (Fourth) canal:  43 million km3 = $10.75
Locks:  230m x 24 canal-pairs x 0.5 = $276 & 27.6 BP
===
Total = $286.75 and 27.6 BP

Provinces opened to shipping (assuming St. Lawrence Seaway is completed):  5
Note:  Detroit River to St. Clair River is navigable, but Lake St. Clair itself requires dredging.

[The Rock Doctor]

Lake St. Clair Channel

Nation:  Confederation territory; of interest to Northern Kingdom
Location:  Dredged channel across Lake St. Clair, between Lake Erie and Lake Huron
Length:  About 30 km; navigable to shallow draft (~3m) vessels
Height drop:  Couple feet, no historical locks

Cost:

Excavation:  30,000 x 110 x 5 (average to achieve 8.2 m depth) = 16.5 million cubic metres = $4.13
Locks:  N/A

Provinces opened to shipping (assuming Welland, St. Lawrence canals in place):  11 around Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
Note:  Requires additional locks to access Lake Superior and 3 more provinces

[Kaiser Kirk]

At one point I wanted to produce plans for my military harbors with a great deal of dredging and earthmoving...that would be pricy.

But for a BIG project?

There are a couple of proposed canal routes linking the Caspian and Indian Oceans.

...I have no idea the cost....except extremely high

Iranrud canals

Then I have considered a couple Caspian-Black Sea routes,
but they both would be dependent on the Byzantines,
and one seems like it routes through Horde territory.

This is the non-Horde one
[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasia_Canal"Eurasia[/url]

[The Rock Doctor]

Horde routing might be a problem.

If I were the Norse player, I'd probably be doing some of the stuff above, but I've done my big infrastructure project.  unless I excavate Kiel a little more.   

I considered duplicating the Upper Volta Dam but reading suggests it's probably done as much harm as it has helped the area.

[Kaiser Kirk]

The Don-Volga canal seems to go through Horde, and then through Byzantine.
So..that's a pass.

[Jefgte]

...that's a pass.

Yes you can.

[The Rock Doctor]

Kra Canal

Nation:  Thailand; of interest to other local maritime powers
Location:  Cut canal through the Kra Isthmus of Thailand
Dimensions:  102 km x 400 x 25 m, plus whatever topography has to be scraped off that (Wikipedia).
Height drop:  Sea level canal; a single set of locks might be useful to manage tides, I dunno.

Cost:

Excavation:  102,000 x 400 x 25 = 1,020 million cubic metres = $255.00
Locks:  Strictly optional

Saves 2,400 km round-trip between west and east.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Foxy actually mentioned that one.
I think he wanted a route to Europe that didn't have to go through Parthian waters,
plus he wanted to flank China.

He very much wanted to either Ally with Thailand, or re-create Singapore.
The first wasn't possible with the NPCs the way they were designed.
Had he continued, with the NPC player councils, I was trying to make a path for such to be
pursued- gifts of ships, $$, etc.

The actual invasion and seizure of Singapore would have been difficult as
he very much neglected the Japanese army and amphibious tech.
Against the Maya his land forces were behind tech wise and as I recall he didn't have tanks.

Either approach may have caused problems with Parthia,  as the Japanese kept saber rattling about the Parthian presence, which was taken seriously. To date, the Parthians have chosen to play nice, staying neutral or actively aiding the IJN at times.

BUT... A Japanese invasion just across the straits might just have led to an ultimatum. We probably would frown on Thailand allying as well, but that's less confrontational.

The Parthians have a strong presence on the SE Asia->Indian Ocean Sealanes,
so wanting to get around makes sense, but a Kra canal would just lead to a bigger presence in the Andamans, and making a route past them, and then past Sri Lanka & the Maldives would be tricky.

So the military reason for a Kra would not be there.
The mercantile reason to slow down and use locks rather than use Straits of Malacca is cutting distance, but at a cost of lock time and fees.