Dive summary:

• If ships could cross between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, the route between San Francisco and New York would be 800 kilometers shorter than it is now with the Panama Canal.
• The stumbling block, of course, is that there is no canal – and that's is a $40 billion stumbling block.
• However, Nicaragua seems to be liking the canal idea, as President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front party has backed it, and the national assembly is mulling over the idea of giving China-based developer NK Nicaragua Development Investment Co. a 100-year concession on the necessary land.

From the article:

Set to last around 11 years, the development process would dig through 130 miles to create a new waterway safe for large vessels to pass through. ...