Exploring the Panama Canal
(http://www.gulfnews.com/) The seaway from the western coast of Central America to the same latitude in the Atlantic Ocean through the turbulent waters of Cape Horn takes four to six weeks for a middle-sized cargo ship.
The passage between Balboa and Colon, the two towns at either end of the Panama Canal, takes approximately 12 hours and cuts the total journey by some 10,000 kilometres. The waterway has proved a blessing ever since the steamer SS Ancon became the first vessel to sail its waters on August 15, 1914.
Booming freight traffic between the continents however has brought the canal close to saturation point today. The 81.6-km-long channel accounts for about five per cent of global freight traffic but there is a serious limitation - it can only admit ships not wider than 32.3 metres. Taking into account other specifications, ships of this size are classified as Panamax.
End-of-range concept
The problem that Panama's Canal authority Autoridad del Canal de Panama faces is that Panamax is an end-of-range concept, because modern cargo ships are too large to use the waterway. The so-called post-Panamax ships, comprising modern supertankers as well as larger container ships or, for example, US Navy supercarriers, cannot cross the canal. An increasing volume of import goods shipped from Asia to the United States' east coast is forced to take the old-fashioned route around the south tip of South America or the far longer eastern-bound route across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal and across the Atlantic.
In a bid not to jeopardise Panama's canal revenues in the future, the country's president Martin Torrijos in 2006 announced the enlargement of the waterway. The immediate worrying factor were estimates that more than one-third of the world's container ships would be too large for the canal in a few years.
Torrijos presented a multi-billion-dollar draft which was approved in a national referendum by almost 77 per cent of Panama's population. "Our vision is that this project will attract incredible opportunities for the country and, at the same time, will break what is about to become the bottleneck of world commerce," he told national television at that time, according to local newspaper reports.
However, the progress of the project happens to be rather slow. After working their way through several hurdles on the domestic and international political front, Torrijos announced the launch of the project on September 3, 2007, stating that "the canal would generate enough wealth to transform Panama into a First World country" - albeit at a cost of $5.2 million (Dh19.1 million) for the three-phase project.
The first phase would see some 37 million cubic metres of soil and rocks being dredged away. But the tendering procedure addressing major project developers is still running after the public bid was prolonged in July 2008 to re-evaluate costs and project schedules and will be closed not earlier than in December this year, the canal authority said recently.
So far, the only noticeable though regrettable result of the expansion was an accident during preparations for the 2007 project opening ceremony when a worker crashed his truck into a power pylon and was electrocuted.
Cutting it short
About 14,000 ships cross the Panama Canal each year. But modern cargo vessels are becoming too big for the waterway.
Time line
1876 A French company, Societe Civile Internationale du Canal Interoceanique, proposes to build a waterway between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans modelled on the Suez Canal (finished 1869) and based on the layouts of Austrian engineer Alois Negrelli.
1881-1889 First attempt to build the canal. 22,000 workers died from Malaria and other tropical diseases and in attacks by wild animals and indigenous tribes. Construction ceased after the public-funded French company went bankrupt.
1902 The US government purchased the canal's construction licence from the French.
1905 Construction resumed under supervision of the US government after Panama gained independence from Colombia.
1906-1914 The Panama Canal was built at a cost of $386 million. 5,600 workers died in accidents and from diseases.
August 15, 1914 The official opening of the canal. The Panama Canal Zone is administered and controlled by the US government.
1989 US invasion of Panama. President Manuel Noriega is captured and detained by US forces, triggering protests by Panamanians against US hegemony over the canal.
1999 Handover of the canal to the Panama government.
September 3, 2007 Announcement of $5.2 billion enlargement project by Panama's president Martin Torrijos.
August 15, 2008 The 94th anniversary of the canal's opening.
