After the construction of the canal was finalized, the next most important question was where the workers for the construction of the canal would come from.

Nearly 90,000 workers were used to build the Kiel Canal in Germany, and the Eyre Lake Canal will only be used more.

If the entire section of the Eyre Lake Canal were to be built in three sections, the good news would be that the construction time would be doubled, and the bad news would be that more workers would be needed.

Arthur already had a basic plan for the source of these workers. The dying United States is home to a large number of unemployed workers, who are not only a good source of immigrants, but also labor in the construction of the Lake Eyre Canal.

By building the Eyre Lake Canal, a large number of unemployed people can be attracted from the eastern part of the United States, and suitable immigrants can be selected from them, so that they can bring their families to Australasia.

The construction of the Lake Eyre Canal is expected to employ 150,000 workers, which means 150,000 families will be coming to Australasia.

Even if there are only 3 to 4 people per family, 150,000 households represent more than 500,000 migrants.

Given Arthur's selectivity in the immigration requirements, the 150,000 families must have been selected, with preference given to immigrants of British origin.

Once the canal is built, they will be able to settle around the canal and prepare for the future development of the artesian basin.

Of course, these were only workers who were prepared for the excavation of the canal. The canal is equipped with related facilities, and other construction companies will do it.

In general, the project of the canal is so large that even if it were to be built in three sections, it would not have been possible to complete it in 5 to 8 years.

And with the weight and volume of ships growing in the future, the canal may have to undergo a new round of widening, as was the case with the Kiel Canal built by the Germans.

However, this was a matter for later monarchs to consider, and the current Eyre Lake Canal was not necessary to be widened in twenty or thirty years, according to the design plan.

The Eyre Lake Canal is just one part of the construction plan. While important, it is definitely not the whole story.

After discussing plans for the construction of Lake Eyre, the government moved on to other key construction projects, and several at once.

Among these key construction projects, the construction of transportation is definitely a very important part.

It is worth mentioning that there is a more familiar word in transportation construction, that is, the highway that is expected to be the first to be built in the Australian region.

Of course, there is still a big difference between the highway today and 100 years from now. As mentioned earlier, there are currently speed limits for vehicles in both urban and suburban areas.

With the development of technology, the speed of cars has been increased to a level that far exceeds the speed limit.

However, whether in urban areas or suburbs, the maximum speed limit is only 60 kilometers per hour, which has greatly limited the traffic efficiency of cars.

After discussion with the transportation department, the speed limit in the city has not been changed for the time being, and the speed limit in the suburbs has been modified to a certain extent.

Of course, the biggest change is the highway proposed by the transportation department.

Naturally, highways are roads that are designed for high-speed driving. Today's highways are not as complicated as those of later generations, and they are as paved and wider as possible.

The first highways in Australasia will be built in Australia as a priority and as far as possible as a round-the-island highway to increase the efficiency of car traffic.

The speed limit on motorways is currently expected to be increased to 90 km/h, and to 100 km/h in some particularly flat areas, which is about the maximum speed that a car can support at the moment.

As for the speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, it may be possible for current cars to achieve it, and maintaining such an exaggerated speed for a long time is a great challenge for the current car structure.

The original intention of the highway design is to improve the efficiency of traffic, and it is natural to reduce the probability of car breakdowns as much as possible.

In addition to highways, the construction of railways and ordinary roads is also an important part of transportation construction.

The importance of road construction is quite high in every era, and road construction is often a headache for the government.

Don't look at the key construction plan proposed by Australasia this time, it is very large, in fact, most of the construction scrapped funds are not much.

Only the gold-swallowing beast of transportation construction quietly accounts for 21% of the total investment, occupying a full $63 million budget.

But transportation construction is definitely not useless. When all road construction is completed, Australasia's economy will also be able to drive a lot.

Of course, these road constructions are definitely not just done by the government. The specific road construction will be divided into main roads, branch roads, ordinary roads and rural roads for bidding, and contracted to different private capital.

Among the many constructions, there is another project that has a certain relationship with the canal, that is, the construction of hydroelectric power facilities on the canal.

As mentioned earlier, Lake Eyre is more than 10 meters below sea level, and the sea water flows naturally into Lake Eyre.

Such a huge amount of kinetic energy is naturally impossible to waste, let alone compared to cleaner hydroelectric power.

One of the most suitable areas for the construction of hydroelectric power plants is at the junction of North and South Eyre Lake, and the other is the junction of Torrens Lake and Spencer Bay.

One is the kinetic energy of a large amount of seawater flowing into Lake Eyre, and the other is the kinetic energy of a large amount of seawater entering the Bay of Torrens, both of which can generate a large amount of electricity.

The construction of the hydropower station and the canal was carried out almost simultaneously, and the completed hydropower station will also be part of the canal facilities, so that the canal has a greater probability of recovering its cost.

The myriad construction plans were consolidated into the Eight-Year Plan, and even the costly Eyre Lake Canal was included.

Truth be told, it is Australasia that is currently able to propose such a huge construction.

Such a huge project, which cost nearly $600 million and took nearly eight years to build, would never have been enacted by other countries if it were not for a particularly crisis moment.

Although eight years cannot change a country, it can basically change a government. That is, a powerful monarchy like Australasia, so that there is no need to worry about the top decision-maker of the government being replaced in eight years' time.

When the full eight-year construction plan was released, it immediately shocked the whole of Australasia and the world.

With a total cost of 570 million Australian dollars, a total of more than 700,000 workers, involving dozens of industries, large and small, and benefiting the whole of Australasia, the huge construction project is the largest and most expensive construction in the country's history.

Although the Australian dollar has depreciated a lot compared to before, 570 million Australian dollars is still an unimaginable figure for most countries.

This also directly confirms the position of the third power in Australasia, the three major countries of Britain, France and Australia, which are called the three strongest countries in the world.

Behind such public opinion, Arthur naturally participated. In fact, if you really want to talk about the comprehensive strength of the country, Australasia is obviously not weaker than France, and the second place in the world also has to be contested.

But the relationship between world first and world second is often not so harmonious, what does world second mean? It means that it is almost the world hegemon.

Such a huge name was still borne by the French, and Arthur was even willing to make Australasia the fourth power, if it was not the fourth power.

After the demise of the United States, the world rankings currently recognized by Europe have become Britain, France, Australia, Island, Russia, Italy, Germany, and Austria.

Such a ranking is based on factors such as population, economy, and industry, combined with the military strength of each country.

Germany and the Austrian Empire were no exception, after all, both countries had a lot of industry and population, and it was no problem to maintain their status as great powers.

In addition, more than ten years have passed since the First World War, and although it will not allow Germany and Austria to be freed from various restrictions, it is still no problem to have certain diplomatic rights.

Now that both countries have joined the World Alliance, it has truly become an international organization in which all the great powers participate.

Because of the impact of this economic crisis, Australasia saw the great harm of overproduction.

Because of this, the eight-year construction plan does not have much requirements for industry, but it is expected to invest in a large steel plant, including steel mills, coke plants, slag steel plants, ironworks, mining plants and other ancillary facilities, which is expected to increase the annual pig iron output by 750,000 tons and steel output by 450,000 tons.

With the addition of two kingdoms and one republic on the west coast of the United States, Australasia's industrial products were able to be sold to more regions.

However, the increase in steel production is almost that, unless the market really has enough demand, it will maintain a steady growth in recent years, and will not increase significantly.

After the independence of the Great Lakes Industrial Zone, it is believed that a large number of American industrial products will flood Europe in a short time.

A large part of these manufactured goods will be used to pay off debts, which seems to be a bully to European countries, but in fact it is a jeopardy to their industrial development.

But it can only be said that American industry is too attractive. The industrial legacy of a once industrially powerful country is something that even the British Empire is excited about.

Australasian industry will also have to wait and see what happens in the United States, and it is obviously more important to maintain relative stability.

In addition to canals, transportation and steel production, the eight-year plan also focuses on the laying of power plants and power grids.

With the development of science and technology, electricity has entered thousands of households and has become one of the irreplaceable energy sources in people's daily life.

Australasia, as one of the great powers, is also one of the countries with the most widespread access to electricity.

Australasia's electricity consumption is currently rising every year, and in addition to the electricity used in factories, the continuous growth of residential electricity is also an important reason.

In order to ensure that electricity generation exceeds electricity consumption, and that people in all regions of the country have enough electricity available, it is necessary to build more power plants.

After all, there is no shortage of coal mines in Australasia, and the current mainstream thermal power plants only need to worry about environmental pollution for Australasia.

It is precisely because of environmental pollution that the power plants built must not all be thermal power plants.

At present, the most mainstream are hydropower and thermal power generation, and Australasia adopts a relatively simple approach.

Hydroelectric power plants are built wherever they can be built, and thermal power plants are built in the remaining areas where they cannot be built.

3200 words for the third update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)