Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-25
Nicaraguan Project Receives a Sc
rious Blow.
REPORT OF TEE GOVERNMENT BOARD
Opposed to Its Construction on
Present Data.
COST UNDERESTIMATED

A special dispatch from Washington, pub
| lished in the New York Herald today, gives
| what is claimed to be a synopsis and review
of the contents and the text of the conclu-
sions of the report of the Nicaragua canal
| commission. The report is said to be now
| under consideration by the President in
connection with his annual message to Con-
gress.
The dispatch summarizes the report as
follows:
1.-The report is at such variance with the
| numerous rumors and predictions which
have from time to time been published con-
cerning it that it will cause great surprise
and disappointment among those who have
hoped for a generally favorable report and
who have, therefore, placed credence in
these rumors, which usually stated on the
highest authority that the commission Ia
vored the route proposed by the company
anu placed the cost Of the canal at about
$11O.O0,OOO.
The report points out that it is neither
prac ticable nor advisable 10 attempt the
construction of the Nicaragua canal upon
the data at present available and that the
undertaking would be fraught with hazards
| too obvious to disregard. That the neces-
sary knowledge may be had of the physical
and Typographical conditions affecting the
construction and maintenance of a canal
across Nicaragua, upon winch to form a
| final judgment as to the feasibility, perma-
nence and cost, the commission recommends
an appropriation by Congress of Sioo,0oO for
extensive additional surveys and eNam:na-
tions covering period of eighteen months.
I Cost Underestimnted.
with the data at hand however, the COM
mission makes a provisional estimate of cost
| of $133, Az, SOB, or nearly double that of the
Maritime Canal Company's unconditional
estimate of So, 500, 660. The general trend
of the entire report is certainly very un-
favorable to the canal company. The com
mission refrains from any direct criticism
CT the company's prospectus, but its report
shows that certain features, which the COM
Iany has persisted in assuring the public,
through Congress, were known to be abso-
lrtely safe and feasible. If put in execution
might jeopardize the practicability of the
whole system, and possibly destroy forever
| the hope of a canal by means of the San
Juan river and Lake Nicaragua.
For instance, the Maritime Canal Com
pany has proposed to construct in Ochoa, On
the San Juan river. twenty-nine miles from
Greytown, on the Caribbean, what is known
as ''rock-filr' dam to hold the lake and
river level at a navigable elevation, and di-
vert the line thence from the river. to the
sea by canal In excavating. This has,
| in fact, been one of the foregone certainties
Of the project, and the company has told
Congress that this enormous structure could
he erected for s9T7.2I3. The canal commits
sion says "rock-fill' dam cannot be built
in Ochoa for less than s4000,00o. 1t also
shows that the dam, at any rate, Is a most
hazardous venture, but the commissioners
have so little information as to the nature
of the site of the dam that they cannot,
engineers recommend any sort of a Struc
ture at this point. although they admit the
I ecesSity for the success of the companys
scheme of a great dam in this locality. The
commission finds that the company has
made few borings in the bed of the river
where it proposes to build this colossal
structure, and that for lack of suitable tools
the borings made reached such a shallow
depth as to make them of little practical
value in determining the character of the
foundation on which the dam is to rest.
Examinations Necessary.
Members of the commission cannot. as
engineers, commit themselves favorably to
the construction CT such an unprecedented
work, no matter how inviting and advan-
tageous it's successful completion would ap
pear without a thorough knowledge of the
might prove the construction of the dam to
be practicable. Without such an examine
ton, the commission regards the erection
of the dam unsafe and dangerous, and
it calls attention to the possibility Of
heavy flood dcmolishirg the structure and
releasing such head of water as to wash
Greytown into the sea.
Very elaborate tables are submitted COM
pairing the commissions estimates of guam
titles and unit price with those of the COM
pany corrected to 1895. A comparative
| recapitulation of the cost is thus given