The Rise of Australia

Chapter 721 Eight years of construction begins! (Thanks for the monthly votes, more updates will be added!)

After the construction work of the canal has been determined, the next most important question is where will the workers for the canal construction come from?

Nearly 90,000 workers were used to build the Kiel Canal in Germany, and the Lake Eyre Canal will only use more.

If the entire Lake Eyre Canal is divided into three sections and built together, the good news is that the construction time can be shortened exponentially, but the bad news is that more workers are needed.

Arthur already had a basic plan for the source of these workers. The United States, which has just perished, actually has a large number of unemployed workers. These workers are not only a high-quality source of immigrants, but can also be used as labor in the Lake Eyre Canal construction plan.

By building the Lake Eyre Canal, a large number of unemployed people can be attracted from the eastern United States, and those suitable for immigration can be selected and brought to Australasia with their families.

The construction of the Lake Eyre Canal is expected to require 150,000 workers, which also means that 150,000 families will come to Australasia.

Even if there are only 3 to 4 people in each household, 150,000 households represent more than 500,000 immigrants.

Given Arthur's careful selection of immigrants, these 150,000 families must have been selected, and priority was given to British immigrants.

When the canal is completed, they can settle around the canal and prepare for the future development of the Great Artesian Basin.

Of course, these were just workers preparing for the excavation of the canal. Other construction companies are also responsible for the related facilities supporting the canal.

In general, the canal project is so huge that even if it is divided into three sections and built together, it will be impossible to complete in less than 5 to 8 years.

And with the development of the weight and volume of ships in the future, the canal may need to undergo a new round of widening, just like the Kiel Canal built by the Germans.

However, this is an issue that later monarchs should consider. According to the current design plan, there is no need to widen the Lake Eyre Canal within 20 to 30 years.

The Lake Eyre Canal is just one part of the construction plan. Although very important, it is definitely not the whole story of the construction plan.

After discussing the construction plan for Lake Eyre, the government went on to launch other key construction projects, many at once.

Among these key construction projects, transportation construction is definitely a very important part.

It is worth mentioning that there is a relatively familiar word in transportation construction, and that is the highway that is expected to be the first to be built in Australia.

Of course, there are still big differences between highways today and 100 years from now. As mentioned before, current vehicles have corresponding speed limits in urban areas and suburbs.

With the development of science and technology, the speed of cars has increased to a level far exceeding the speed limit.

But whether in urban areas or suburbs, the maximum speed limit is only 60 kilometers per hour, which has greatly limited the traffic efficiency of cars.

After discussions with the transportation department, the urban speed limit will remain unchanged for the time being, and certain modifications will be made to the suburban speed limit.

Of course, the biggest change is the highway proposed by the transportation department.

Expressways are naturally roads designed for high-speed travel. Today's highways are not as complicated as later generations, they are paved and wider roads as much as possible.

The first batch of highways in Australasia will be built in Australia as a priority, and as much as possible, they will be built as ring-island highways to increase the efficiency of car traffic.

The highway speed limit is currently expected to be raised to 90 kilometers per hour, and some particularly flat areas will be raised to 100 kilometers per hour, which is almost the maximum speed that cars can currently support.

As for the speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, current cars may be able to achieve it. Maintaining such an exaggerated speed for a long time is a great challenge for the current car structure.

The original intention of highway design is to improve traffic efficiency, and naturally it is necessary to reduce the probability of car failure as much as possible.

In addition to expressways, the construction of railways and ordinary roads is also an important part of transportation construction.

The importance of road construction is quite high in every era, and road construction is often a gold-swallowing beast that worries the government.

Although the key construction plans proposed by Australasia this time are very huge, in fact, most of the construction and scrapping funds are not much.

Only transportation construction, a gold-swallowing beast, quietly accounts for 21% of the total investment and a full 63 million Australian dollars of the budget.

But transportation construction is definitely not in vain. When all road construction is completed, Australasia's economy will also be able to boost a lot.

Of course, these road constructions are definitely not just done by the government. Specific road construction will be divided into main roads, branch roads, ordinary roads and rural roads for bidding and contracted to different private capital.

Among the many constructions, there is another project that has a certain relationship with the canal, and that is the construction of hydroelectric power generation facilities on the canal.

As mentioned before, Lake Eyre is more than ten meters below sea level, and seawater will naturally flow into Lake Eyre.

Such huge kinetic energy cannot be wasted, not to mention the much cleaner hydropower generation.

The areas that are more suitable for building hydropower stations are, first, the connection between North Lake Eyre and South Lake Eyre, and the second is the connection between Lake Torrens and Spencer Bay.

One is the kinetic energy of a large amount of seawater entering Lake Eyre, and the other is the kinetic energy of a large amount of seawater entering Torrens Bay, both of which can generate a large amount of electricity.

The construction of the hydropower station and the canal are carried out almost at the same time. The completed hydropower station will also be used as part of the canal facilities, giving the canal a greater probability of return on investment.

Various construction plans were consolidated into the Eight-Year Plan, including the expensive Lake Eyre Canal.

To be honest, it is currently Australasia that can propose such a huge construction.

Such a huge project with a total cost of nearly 600 million Australian dollars and a construction time of nearly eight years would never be enacted by other countries unless it was a particularly critical moment.

Although eight years cannot change a country, it can basically change a government. That is to say, a country with real power such as Australasia does not have to worry about the replacement of the government's top decision-makers within eight years.

Once this complete eight-year construction plan was released, it immediately shocked the entire Australasia and even the world.

The huge construction plan, which costs a total of A$700 million, employs more than 700,000 workers, involves dozens of industries, large and small, and benefits the entire Australasia is the largest and most expensive construction project in the history of the country.

Although the Australian dollar has depreciated a lot compared to before, 700 million Australian dollars is still a huge number that most countries cannot imagine.

This also directly confirmed Australasia's position as the third great power. The three major countries of Britain, France and Australia are collectively known as the world's top three.

There is naturally Arthur's participation behind such public opinion. In fact, if we really talk about the country's comprehensive strength, Australasia is obviously not weaker than France, and it can also compete for the world's second throne.

But the relationship between the world's number one and the world's number two is often not so harmonious. What does it mean to be number two in the world? It means that he is almost the world hegemon.

Such a huge name is still left to the French. If it is not the fourth power or an island country, Arthur is even willing to make Australasia the fourth power.

After the demise of the United States, the currently recognized world rankings in Europe have become Britain, France, Australia, Islands, Russia, Italy, Germany, and Austria.

This ranking is a comprehensive ranking based on factors such as population, economy, and industry, and combined with the military strength of each country.

The fact that Germany and the Austrian Empire are among them is no exception. After all, both countries have a lot of industry and population, so there is no problem in maintaining their status as great powers.

In addition, more than ten years have passed since the First World War. Although Germany and Austria will not be freed from various restrictions, it is still no problem to have certain diplomatic rights.

At present, both countries have joined the World Alliance, which has truly turned the World Alliance into an international organization in which all major powers participate.

Because of the impact of this economic crisis, Australasia has seen the huge harm caused by overproduction.

Because of this, the eight-year construction plan does not have many requirements for industry. It is only expected to invest in a large steel plant, including steel plants, coke plants, slag steel plants, iron smelting plants, mining plants and other ancillary facilities. It is expected that It can increase annual pig iron production by 750,000 tons and steel production by 450,000 tons.

Because there are two more kingdoms and one republic on the west coast of the United States, Australasia's industrial products can be sold to more areas.

However, the increase in steel production is almost that much. Unless there is really enough demand in the market, it will maintain a stable growth in the past few years and will not increase significantly.

After the Great Lakes Industrial Zone is separated, it is believed that a large number of American industrial products will flood Europe in a short period of time.

A large part of these industrial products will be used to pay off debts. This seems to be an advantage for European countries, but it actually harms their industrial development.

But I can only say that American industry is too attractive. The industrial legacy left by a country that was once the largest industrial power, even the British Empire was moved by.

Australasian industry also needs to wait and see the industrial situation in the United States. It is obviously more important to maintain relative stability.

In addition to canals, transportation and steel production, the eight-year construction plan emphasizes the laying of power plants and power grids.

With the development of science and technology, electricity has entered thousands of households and has become one of the irreplaceable energy sources in people's daily lives.

As one of the great powers, Australasia is also one of the countries with the most widespread access to electricity.

Australasia's electricity consumption is currently rising every year. In addition to factory electricity consumption, the continuous growth of civilian electricity is also an important reason.

In order to ensure that electricity generation exceeds electricity consumption and that people in all regions of the country have enough electricity available, it is necessary to build more power plants.

After all, Australasia has no shortage of coal mines. With the current mainstream thermal power plants, Australasia only has to worry about environmental pollution.

Precisely because of environmental pollution, all power plants built must not be thermal power plants.

At present, the most mainstream ones are hydropower and thermal power generation, and the method adopted in Australasia is relatively simple.

Hydropower plants will be built in all areas where hydropower plants can be built, and thermal power plants will be built in other areas where hydropower plants cannot be built.

The third update of 3200 words, please vote for me and support!