Here is a great article on the history and current events of the proposed new canal in Nicaragua by Roff Smith in the National Geographic
Published March 29, 2014
For nearly a century the Panama Canal has been the only game in town for anyone who wanted to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific without making the long voyage around Cape Horn.
In that time more than a million ships, from bulk carriers to cruise liners to nuclear submarines, have passed through its locks, taking advantage of the world’s most famous shortcut.
Panama’s canal may (or may not) soon face stiff competition. Last June Nicaragua’s National Assembly overwhelmingly approved a plan to grant a Chinese company, the Hong Kong–based HKND Group, exclusive rights to build a canal spanning the country.
The planned canal could be about 175 miles (282 kilometers) long, more than three times the length of Panama’s, with locks big enough to accommodate even colossal new container ships. Up to a quarter of a mile (0.4 kilometers) long, these behemoths can carry more than 18,000 shipping containers—enough to deliver a million flat-screen TVs or 148 million pairs of running shoes from factories in the Far East to markets in the West.