After examining all the routes, Randel decided that the best one was not the "upper route" that Latrobe and chosen and Strickland had confirmed, but instead the "southern route", which was more technically challenging in that it would have to go through an 80 feet ridge, and required a "deep cut", which was harder to do, but would have the advantage of opening the canal to the Atlantic Ocean, assuring it of always having enough water, a problem which the company and its staff had worried about solving.