Construction got under way on Monday on a US$5.25 billion pro-ject to improve and expand the Panama Canal, considered one of the world's engineering wonders.
The project will double the capacity of the 80km canal, built from 1904 to 1914 by the US, which relinquished control of the waterway to Panama in December 1999.
Panamanian President Martin Torrijos on Monday hosted former US president Jimmy Carter at a ceremony marking the start of the expansion, which is expected to take 10 years to complete.
PHOTO: AP
Also attending the ceremony were Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Salvadoran President Elias Saca and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
The project, which will build a third set of locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the waterway, will ensure that today's supersize container ships, cruise liners and oil tankers -- many of which are too wide for the canal -- will be able to navigate the waterway in the future.
The largest ships that now use the canal carry as many as 5,000 containers, but future supertankers and ships carrying as many as 12,000 containers can use the canal.
Monday's ceremony fell on the on the 30th anniversary of the 1977 signing of an agreement between then US president Carter and Panama's head of government, General Omar Torrijos -- the current president's father -- that put the canal under Panamanian control.
Schools and government offices were closed on Monday, as Torrijos had urged Panamanians to participate in the public events marking the day.
About 50,000 people attended, local officials and the media said, despite expected heavy weather as Caribbean Hurricane Felix headed for the region.
Some 14,000 ships, comprising about 5 percent of annual world commerce, pass through the Central American shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, avoiding the arduous and costly journey around South America.
Approximately 80 percent of Panama's economy is linked to canal activity, amounting to some US$6 billion.
The waterway's main users are the US, China and Japan.
The third set of locks, parallel to the existing two, would accommodate massive vessels 366m in length, 49m wide and with a 15m draft.
Today, the so-called post-Panamax ships -- too wide and too long for the Panama Canal -- must circle Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America to pass between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.
The government says work would be financed by a hike in tolls, worth US$1.2 billion in 2005.
Panamanian authorities say the project will directly generate 7,000 jobs, and indirectly 35,000.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was