(CNN) -- When plans were announced to build a giant new transoceanic canal across Nicaragua, the young Hong Kong businessman leading the project acknowledged the widespread skepticism. "We don't want it to become an international joke," said Wang Jing, a 40-year-old with no significant engineering experience and a background he described as "very normal." 

That was in June 2013, when the Nicaraguan legislature, controlled by President Daniel Ortega, had just allowed Wang to move forward with his five-year project . 

It is not certain that the canal, which would be one of the most ambitious and expensive engineering projects on Earth, will ever get built. But it looks set to move forward, and even some of the most determined doubters are starting to reconsider. 

Last Thursday, the government and Wang's company, Nicaragua Canal Development Investment, announced that construction will start on Dec. 22. 

The development's estimated price tag -- $50 billion -- is four times the size of the entire Nicaraguan economy. The canal itself would be deeper, wider and longer than the Panama Canal, just a few hundred miles to the south. The Panama Canal's expansion is almost ready, which raises the question of why another costly canal is needed. 

The Nicaraguan opposition has called the project the biggest scam in the country's history, and engineering experts are divided over whether the project is feasible. 

Pedro Alvarez, chairman of civil engineering at Rice University, has expressed doubts that it will ever be completed. He worries that it will be abandoned. His greatest concern is severe damage to Lake Nicaragua, the largest freshwater reservoir in Latin America. 
where?
o build a giant new transoceanic canal across Nicaragua