Egypt’s president approved the expansion of the Suez Canal on Tuesday in response to a ship getting stuck in the strategic waterway earlier this year.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved the Suez Canal Authority’s plan to widen and deepen 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the canal, including the part where the Ever Given got stuck in March. The project will include widening the canal by 40 meters (131 feet) between the city of Suez, where the canal meets the Red Sea, and the Great Bitter Lake north of there. That area will also be deepened by about 20 to 22 meters (66 to 72 feet), according to the state-owned Al-Ahram news outlet.
