Update: Corinth Canal construction work continues – reopening in 2024

Update January 5th, 2023

SHIPS@SEA is in close exchange with Elixir-Cruises – a Greek cruise line. From this informed source we learned today that the Corinth Canal will continue to be closed in 2023. As we were reported, it is expected that the repair work will be completed in 2024, so that no transit passages can be offered before then.

Update March 25th, 2022

Our sources from Greece stated recently, that they expect the Corinth Canal will remain closed for the foreseeable future. As was to be expected, the repairs are extensive and time-consuming. As was to be feared, the repairs are extensive and time-consuming. When exactly shipping traffic can be re-established in the canal therefore remains still completely unclear at this point in time.

Update: Corinth Canal January 2022: Canal remains closed for repairs

At the end of 2021, the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy announced that repairs and rehabilitation of the Corinth Canal would begin in January 2022. Greek media state that about 20,000 cubic metres of rocks and soil have fallen into the canal bed. According to the authority, environmental impact assessments that are actually necessary are explicitly not carried out before the work begins. This is justified by the urgency and importance of being able to start complex and special projects of national rank without an elaborate, bureaucratic procedure. Why this push comes only after a year of the canal’s impassability and when it will be navigable again is currently unknown.

The Corinth Canal in Greece has already been closed since January 2021. At the beginning of last year, several landslides and rock slides occurred, blocking this narrow sea lane.

At first, the experts in charge assumed that the closure would be relatively short-lived; however, surprisingly, further and significant landslides occurred again and again. Our SHIPS@SEA stay on site in October 2021 confirmed the existing reports.

Another landslide

Only recently (September 2021) another landslide occurred, which worsened the situation – there is no chance of the canal being opened any time soon this year.

The northern end shows clearly the fallen rocks blocking the Canal of Corinth

UPDATE OCTOBER 2021 Corinth Canal remains closed

Busy waterway remains impassable

SHIPS@SEA was on site in October to get an impression of the state of the canal. In the process, the previously available photos from Greek media could be verified. In the northern part of the canal – towards the Gulf of Corinth – in the vicinity of the „Corinth Canal Footbridge“, debris is visible from afar and is estimated to be several metres high. This extends almost across the entire width of the canal. No salvage, construction or other maintenance work could be identified. It is likely that the Corinth Canal will remain closed beyond 2021.

Corinth Canal now without any operation

Although the Corinth Canal can basically no longer be used by today’s large ships – with a fairway width of a good 21m, it is far too narrow for that – it is repeatedly offered to smaller cruise ships as an exclusive route highlight. In addition, the canal is navigated by about 11,000 smaller ships, tourist boats and yachts every year.

With a length of 6.4km (4 miles), it connects the Saronic Gulf in the south with the northern Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea and was opened in 1893.