| Work Detail |
The Panama Canal Expansion or the third set of locks project is undoubtedly one of the largest and more important infrastructural projects of the twenty first century. This challenging task was to increase the capacity and efficiency of this 100-year old canal that holds a strategic importance in international maritime transportation. Except for the old Suez Canal that connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea, the only main canal that created a shortcut in intercontinental sea transport was the Panama Canal that begun in 1914. However, they were limited by the ability to handle newer ships that came with the growth in international trade and larger ships. This led to the development of the expansion project aimed at enabling the passage of New Panamax vessels which are even bigger than the old Panamax category.Project Scope It aimed to expand a Panama Canal by constructing new locks on the Atlantic and the Pacific sides with addition of an extra lockage way for ships. These include the new locks, which have a dimension of 427 meters in length, 55 meters in breadth and 18 meters in height. In depth of 3 metre, it will be able to accommodate vessel up to L365m It also included the elongation and widening of the current channels, alongside the creation of consumption channels of access. Moreover, advancements were also made to the extensions of the Gatun Lake and the canals governing the traffic also based on the increasing traffic and large size of the ships present. Timeline and Cost The expansion project was inaugurated in September 2007 at a cost of about $ 5. 25 billion. The construction phase of the project was estimated to take about eight years to be completed. However, the execution of the project was hampered by many issues of delay and high costs such as technical complexities, problems with the labour unions and contractual disputes. However, these challenges did not deter the expansion of the canal that was finally completed and inaugurated on 26th June 2016. Thus, the overall cost of the construction has been estimated to cost around $5 when completed. 5 billion. |
