Plausibility check: Waterway trough the Alps?

How plausible is Pietro Caminadas plan for a waterway trough the alps?

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http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D14F63C5A17738DDDAF0994DA405B888CF1D3


http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/0,1518,746956,00.html
 
I'm no expert but the major limiting factor I'd say it would suffer is it would likely be the most expensive single transport project ever undertaken. Likely it would be more expensive than any single state could afford to spend, and when waterways were superseded as the best means for transporting goods by railways, the group responsible for shelling out the money on those canals would probably hang themselves at the thought of the extreme loss of money made worthless already, and probably within their own lifetimes...
 
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