Giant ship makes first voyage through new expanded Panama Canal

[Judi Lynn]

Giant ship makes first voyage through new expanded Panama Canal


The $5.25-billion project was needed to expand the canal to accommodate a new generation of container ships, which are too big for the old canal locks.

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post

Sun., June 26, 2016

PANAMA CITY—A mammoth ship bearing 9,472 containers and the unwieldy name Cosco Shipping Panama on Sunday will become the first vessel to officially pass through the new expanded Panama Canal, a $5.25-billion (U.S.) project designed to modernize a 102-year-old landmark of human ambition, determination and engineering prowess.

The Chinese vessel, which set sail from the Greek port of Piraeus on June 11, will cross the isthmus from the northern Atlantic Ocean end of the 77-kilometre canal. On Sunday morning, it entered one of the new locks, and during the day, it will transit the man-made Gatun Lake, slip along the widened Culebra Cut through a verdant mountain ridge, then descend through another lock that will lower it into the Pacific Ocean.

Like the channel that opened in 1914, the enlarged Panama Canal is a feat of engineering, albeit one that ran over budget and two years behind schedule. The contractors dredged enough material to fill the Egyptian Great Pyramid at Giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, 25 times over. The amount of steel used could have erected 29 new Eiffel Towers. The Empire State Building could lie down and fit into just one of the three chambers in each of the new channel’s locks.

Although cargo tonnage through the canal has risen 60 per cent since 2009, Panama needed to expand the canal to accommodate a new generation of container ships, known as neo-Panamax, which are too big for the old canal locks. The new locks are wider than the old ones, 180 feet versus 110 feet, and are deeper, too, at 60 feet versus 42 feet. Officials say the larger locks and new lane will double the waterway’s cargo capacity. More than 170 neo-Panamax ships have already booked reservations in the expanded locks.

More:
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/06/26/giant-ship-makes-first-voyage-through-new-expanded-panama-canal.html

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141501447

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[Judi Lynn]

1. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jimmy Carter congratulates Panama on a “superb job."

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jimmy Carter congratulates Panama on a “superb job."


Panama inaugurated larger new canal locks on Sunday, doubling the capacity of the strategic waterway. Carter says history proves he was right to sign the historic 1977 treaties that gave Panama control of the canal.



Por: David Adams
Publicado: jun 26, 2016 | 03:06 PM EDT

When president Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal treaties in 1977 handing over control of the strategic waterway, he came under heavy criticism from conservatives at home for a risky give-away of what many considered a vital U.S. asset.

Now, almost 40 years later, as Panama inagurates a massive $5 billion expansion of the canal's locks to accomodate larger ships, Carter says he is proud of his decision to begin the process of giving Panama back its full sovereignty.

"I’m excited and pleased and very grateful that the Panamanians have done such a superb job, not only in operating the canal but in increasing its revenue and at the same time expanding its capacity," Carter told Univison News in an exclusive phone interview on the eve of Sunday's inauguration of the new locks.

"They’ve just exceeded my own very high expectations on how well they have taken care of the canal and used it properly," he said.

More:
http://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/exclusive-interview-jimmy-carter-congratulates-panama-on-a-superb-job