Panama Canal begins
$5.25 billion historic
expansion
Construction started on
Monday on a us$5.25
billion dollar project
to expand the Panama
Canal, the largest-ever
overhaul of the short
cut between the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans.
The Panama Canal is one
of the most ambitious
engineering projects in
history, and the first
major expansion in its
92-year existence will
see a new set of locks
added to the existing
two, allowing two-way
traffic through the
canal.
The canal expansion,
expected to be completed
by 2014 in time for the
centenary of its
opening, will double the
capacity of the 50-mile
(80-kilometer) canal,
lower the price of
consumer goods on the
East Coast of the United
States by allowing wider
vessels to squeeze
through with more cargo.
Currently the largest
ships that cross the
canal can only carry up
to 5,000 containers, but
in the future
supertankers and cargo
ships carrying as many
as 12,000 containers
will be able to navigate
it.
Between 13,000 and
14,000 ships pass
through the canal each
year, comprising about 5
percent of annual world
commerce
The Panama Canal was
opened in 1914 by the
United States, after 10
years of construction
that cost thousands of
lives and handed over to
Panama in December 1999.
About 80 percent of the
gross domestic product
of Panama, a country
with a population of
three million, is linked
to canal activity. |
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