The jam in the Suez canal highlights Egypt’s taste for mega-projects

LIKE A HOUSE guest who refuses to leave, the is still lingering in the doorway. On March 29th, after six days of blocking a vital trade route, the skyscraper-size ship was set right and sailed north under its own power. As went to press, though, it had not sailed far. It was floating in the Great Bitter Lake, less than halfway through the Suez canal. Dozens of other vessels sat at anchor nearby and hundreds more at the canal’s entrances. It will take days to clear the jam.This was not quite what Egypt had in mind seven years ago when it promised more traffic in the canal. Soon after he took office in 2014, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the president, ordered an $8bn expansion of the waterway, since it was only wide enough to handle traffic in one direction. Workers widened part of it and dug a second lane along its central stretch, creating a bypass of 72km (45 miles) so ships sailing in opposite ways could pass each other.