Talk:Suez Canal

Canal Crossings

At about 30,2,43 N 32,34,28 E on Google earth (i.e. about midway between the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel and the overline power crossin) I see what looks like a pontoon/swing bridge for road traffic, which seems to have come into existence around 2018-2019. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.04514,32.57599,1557m/data=!3m1!1e3 I don't see mention of this in the article, or anywhere else on the web. Is it temporary? Strange that I don't see mention of this anywhere. 2600:1700:F91:FAA0:90EE:B0F9:5015:8AD3 (talk) 13:54, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

looks like El Nasr Floating Bridge? https://invest-gate.me/news/el-sisi-inaugurates-el-nasr-bridge-port-said/ Mentioned in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal_Area_Development_Project#Floating_bridge Jeff (talk) 15:53, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

Sorry, no, you're talking about a bridge further south. Jeff (talk) 15:54, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

It seems there is a new "Ahmed el-Mansy" pontoon bridge opened in 2017, at Ismailia - the pontoon sections can be moved to let ships through. It looks like it's meant to be a long-term fixture rather than a temporary relief for the ferry, but i's hard to be sure. Andrew Gray (talk) 18:37, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

After a bit of digging, it looks like there are *five* pontoon bridges, built 2016-19; El Nasr in Port Said, two around Ismailia (Taha Zaki and Ahmed Mansy), one at El Qantara (Abanoub Gerges), and one in Suez governorate in the south (Ahmed Omar Shabrawy). All seem to be a similar design. Andrew Gray (talk) 19:41, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Found them all on Google Maps, north to south:

• El Nasr (one span - nothing on the eastern channel)
• Abanoub Gerges (one span)
• Ahmed el-Mansy (two spans over different channels)
• Taha Zaki Abdullah (two spans over different channels)
• Ahmed Omar Shabrawy (one span)

The first three are specifically named on Google Maps, the others are inferred from the announcements. Interestingly, while these photos show a ship traversing through the Ahmed el-Mansy bridge, with the middle section pulled away, the satellite photos show the whole thing pushed against the bank. I guess it can be used either way. The only one that has a different structure is the El Nasr bridge, which seems to be designed to swing the centre pontoons open, and you can see some kind of fixed mooring points to hold them there. Andrew Gray (talk) 21:43, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Capacity over time

As we have various historic ships that were designed for previous constraints of the Suez canal, I think it would be useful if we could have a table showing how the depth and width limits varied over time. Does anyone here have access to sources that could contribute to that? ϢereSpielChequers 10:30, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Blocking and diversion 2021

Initial reports on the containership blocking the canal on March 24th 2021 did mention traffic being divertet to an "old canal". 'The Canal allegedly works on reopening old canals for tempoary use' (danish national news)

To my knowledge there is no "old canal" - the same canal has been deepened and possible straightened. And from 2015 supplemented by a new parallel canal on the central part of the stretch. But I'm open to enlightenment. Poul G (talk) 07:22, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

I think many of the sources are confused about this. They may be thinking about the second canal north of Bitter Lake that was completed in 2015 (which obviously doesn't help in this case). Or maybe the 2000 year old Ptolemy canal. But there is no "old canal" that can be re-opened. GA-RT-22 (talk) 15:18, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

The sentence about Ever Greet diverting round it should probably be removed. It is currently off Sri Lanka so could go either way. If it chose the canal, by the time it gets there the backlog may have cleared.

Chris.Bristol (talk) 00:51, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

map marking points of interest?

Can someone who knows please provide a map that marks the Great Bitter Lake, the Small Bitter Lake, and other points of interest mentioned in this article?

I can't find a description of the geographic boundaries of the Great and Small Bitter Lakes in Wikipedia. The closest I found was:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321630865_Aquatic_ecosystem_health_and_trophic_status_classification_of_the_Bitter_Lakes_along_the_main_connecting_link_between_the_Red_Sea_and_the_Mediterranean/figures?lo=1

Thanks, DavidMCEddy (talk) 08:24, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Oil shipping containers

There is no such thing as an "oil shipping container", and the cited source does not mention "oil shipping container". Oil is shipped in bulk, usually in tankers. GA-RT-22 (talk) 15:22, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Speculation by experts

We should remove the entire paragraph starting with "At the dawn." Wikipedia is not a newspaper and Wikipedia is not a crystal ball. We should describe the canal as it is, not speculate about what might happen in the future. GA-RT-22 (talk) 16:41, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

While I agree that the article should not contain pure speculation, it appears that there were citations from legitimate sources talking about the potential financial impacts that the blockage is causing the world economy. It is akin to traders and economists making market predictions based off world events (such as the effects of refineries being affected by a tropical storm or actions by OPEC). I would be open to remove certain sections that engage in unsupported speculation, but don't see enough to remove the entire paragraph you cite GA-RT-22. Jurisdicta (talk) 03:39, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

For both the reasons given I agree, though the last sentence is a useful general statistic that that would be better in the Economic Impact section. When the incident is over, a less speculative view of the effects it had will emerge and should provide a sentence or two (anything more should be in the daughter article. Davidships (talk) 08:12, 29 March 2021 (UTC)