I am getting giddy waiting for the gates to open and the huge ships cross through the new locks structure and into the New Panama Canal. Here is a great story and video with Myra Rodriguez.
AT THE PANAMA CANAL – At the narrowest section of the Americas, a herculean process is underway to connect two of the world’s oceans — again.
“We can hope that what we’ve done today is going to last another 100 years,” said Mario Finis, senior vice president for MWH Global, the Broomfield-headquartered company leading the construction of the new Panama Canal locks.
The original Panama Canal is now more than 100 years old. Back then, an American-led effort created this vital shortcut connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. It was monumental, but it was in need of a 21st century upgrade.
Thousands of workers are now putting the finishing touches on the newly-expanded Panama Canal. It runs parallel to the original one.
After nearly a decade of construction, a new set of gates and a deeper channel are now complete. That means the new canal will now be able to handle cargo ships three times the size of an average one. Those massive ships are called “post-Panamax” and are capable of carrying 14,000 cargo containers and could redefine how ports on the East Coast and along the Gulf coast handle shipments from Asia.
“It’s a little city,” said John Duque, design manager for MWH Global, said of the effort to expand the canal. “I have been working eight years now. It’s a big project, it’s a huge project.”
It’s a huge project requiring thousands of workers. At any given time, 8,000 are working on it, split between construction sites on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It also includes hundreds more involved in the project in Colorado.
“It’s the biggest project I’ve ever worked on,” said MWH engineer Wonnie Kim, who is based in the Denver office.
Kim worked on designing the dams that run along the canal to the new massive, lock structure. Each one is able to fit the length of the Empire State Building.
“When you see it, it’s just incredibly impressive, what they’ve been able to build, just the size of it, the gates themselves,” Kim said. “When you see the whole thing, you see how far engineering has progressed from what they built 100 years ago to what we’re able to build now.”
It’s a point of pride not just for those who worked on it, but for the entire nation of Panama, which considers itself a linchpin to the world because of this canal.
The new, expanded Panama Canal will open for business at the end of June. Coloradans who worked on the project will join dignitaries and heads of state here for the official opening. The first vessel that will make its way through the new canal will be from China.