Panama Canal 2008/2009 - (Page 17) Panama Canal Elevation CHAGRES RIVER GATÚN LAKE CARIBBEAN SEA 85 feet above sea level GATÚN LOCKS PEDRO MIGUEL LOCKS MIRAFLORES LAKE MIRAFLORES LOCKS PACIFIC OCEAN Panama Canal maxed out The dirt on the canal For years, major shipping and cruise companies built vessels designed to fit the Canal’s lock chambers. (The largest ships the locks can handle are Panamax size, maximum width 106 feet, maximum length 965 feet.) Increasingly, however, global shippers are supersizing their vessels in order to carry more cargo, and they cannot fit in the locks. Two new sets of triple locks In all, crews will dredge 130 million cubic meters of rock and soil to accommodate the expanded Canal — more than half the amount removed during 34 years of French and U.S. digging — enough to fill the Empire State Building nearly 13 times. Sideways To accommodate today’s post-Panamax ships, Panama officials will construct two enormous sets of single-lane, three-step locks — one set on the Atlantic side, the other on the Pacific side. Another colossal undertaking with lock chambers 1,400 feet long and 180 feet wide — the longest lock complex in the world. The Isthmus of Panama stretches sideways from northwest to southeast, so if you exit the Canal on the Pacific side, you have actually sailed 50 miles southeast of where you entered on the Atlantic side. Weighing in rochure 2009: Panama more than 100 inches of rain falls annually, the Even in the tropics, where .17 biggest challenge facing Canal engineers is how to save water. (It currently 467_CanalElevation_v2.ai requires more than two billion gallons of fresh water a day to operate the locks, all of which is flushed out to sea.) Canal officials found their solution on a visit to the Hohenwarthe Locks on the Elbe River in Germany: Capture the water in recycling basins as it is emptied from the locks and use it again for the next lockage. The result: a water savings of six million gallons per transit. Technological breakthrough Go ahead, have another hand-dipped chocolate. Your Holland America Line ship was weighed and measured at christening and the Purser has already cut the check for your passage. About $2.90 per ton. You do the math. Bridging the divide Among the many original obstacles on the isthmus: the Continental Divide, once looming 534 feet above sea level. You’ll cross it at an elevation of 85 feet (reduced from 312 feet) via the winding, eight-mile channel, the Gaillard Cut — The Ditch! www.hollandamerica.com 17 Panama Canal facts http://www.hollandamerica.com
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