France's national waterway authority has named a design-firm team to plan and manage construction and commissioning of what will be an estimated $5-billion new canal to transport freight in northern Europe.
The 107-kilometer-long Canal Seine Nord will link the River Seine basin from north of Paris, near Compeigne, to the River Schleidt, near Lille, to form a key part of a Trans-European Multi-Modal Corridor. The 54-meter-wide by 4.5-m-deep canal will handle vessels up to 4,400-tonnes capacity and require 55 million cu m of earthworks