Europe’s equivalent to the Suez Canal is a 67-mile river that cost £4.2 billion to construct.

The Suez Canal, one of the most impressive feats of civil engineering of its time, was constructed in April 1859. This 120-mile waterway became a crucial trade route between Europe and Asia, linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.

Europe is now set to have its own version of this famous canal, which was the site of a notorious British military disaster in 1956. The Canal Seine-Nord Europe (SNEC) will be a 67-mile (106 km) waterway connecting the Oise River and the Dunkirk-Escaut Canal. This canal will be part of a network capable of transporting large freight between Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, linking the Seine and Rhine river basins. Planned since the early 1960s, the SNEC is expected to be completed in 2028 at a cost of €5 billion, or £4.2 billion.

The waterway will include seven locks, with the deepest measuring 30 meters at Moislains. It will feature numerous engineering innovations, notably a 1.3-kilometer (0.8-mile) navigable bridge that will elevate the canal 30 meters above a protected wetland in the Somme Valley.