"Quarter mile" is a linear dimension. What is the width? If you had to estimate the volume of earth in that 'quarter mile', and then estimate the size of an e

"Quarter mile" is a linear dimension. What is the width? If you had to estimate the volume of earth in that 'quarter mile', and then estimate the size of an excavator bucket, and the capacity of a dump truck, and the availability of all those things at any given time (even if you ship them in), you'd soon realize that just digging out that earth will take more time. On top of that, there's going to be FLOW in the canal - what will your diversion to for erosion, pressure on the locks, etc. You risk damaging the canal itself to deal with a temporary problem if you think you can just 'dig around it' in 5 days. My bet is you've never seen how long it takes to plan something with this much risk involved. This isn't software, you aren't going to Agile it away if you screw it up.