Swelling the Canal

As reported by the Financial Times, Panama has announced a plan to double the capacity of its primary source of revenue, The Panama Canal. The five plus billion dollar project will allow larger cargo ships to transit. According to the Chief Executive of the Canal Authority, the new locks will be 1,400 feet long, 180 feet wide, with a depth of 50'. This will accomodate container vessels carrying up to 12,000 TEUs, (Total Equivalent Units) but will not, apparently, fit ships like the newly launched Freedom of the Seas, which has a beam of 184'. Nor, it seems, will it accomodate an even bigger cruise liner, Genesis, which is currently under development and will be so large as to possibly block out the sun and raise the level of the oceans two inches.

-seabgb