Volqa-Don 2, Navigation canal project in Volgograd Oblast, Russia
Volga-Don 2 is a planned navigation canal in Volgograd Oblast, Russia, designed to run roughly parallel to the existing Volga-Don Canal and connect the Volga and Don rivers. The proposed route would accommodate larger vessels than the current waterway can handle.
The idea of a second canal between the Volga and the Don took shape in the early 2000s, when growing shipping traffic made the limits of the original canal, built in the 1950s, more apparent. Since then, the project has been reviewed several times without construction starting.
The name Volga-Don 2 directly signals its purpose: a second connection between the two rivers that the first canal already links. Unlike the existing canal, which passes through several locks, this new route is intended to allow larger vessels to pass without the same restrictions.
Since the canal has not been built, there is nothing to visit on the ground at this time. Updates on its planning status can be found through regional authorities or news coverage of Russian waterway projects.
If built, this canal would give ships a direct inland passage between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, making it one of a small number of routes in the world connecting two seas overland. The existing canal already offers the same theoretical connection, but its locks are too narrow for many modern vessels.
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