PANAMA CANAL

By : -02- Thoufique Salik08- Prashant Verma

INTRODUCTION Panama Canal is a 48-mile (77.1 km) ship

canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

It connects via Caribbean Sea. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama.  Key conduit for international maritime trade. Panama Canal Project was started in1881 by France, but

had to stop because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease.

Later US took the project and took the decade to complete in 1914.

Original Owner - La Société internationale du Canal. Principal Engineer - John Findlay Wallace, John Frank

Stevens (1906–1908), George Washington Goethals.

INTRODUCTION It was constructed to enabling ships to avoid the

lengthy Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America (via the Drake Passage) or to navigate the Strait of Magellan.

One of the largest and most difficult engineering Project ever Undertaken.

The largest ships that can transit the canal today are called Panamax.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has named the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

PROFILE OF PANAMA CANAL

Gatun Locks

GATUN LOCKS It is a lock system, lifts the ship 26 mtrs high. Having total 6 steps. Three ups and 3 downs. Total length including approach wall is 3 kms.

The Culebra Cut at Las Cascadas

CULEBRA CUT

The next excavation was the Culebra Cut – an incision into Panama that extended for nine miles and ended at Gatun Lake

GATUN LAKE At the time of creation it was largest artificial

lake. It is of 32 km in length. Created between 1907-14 by the building of

the Gatun Dam across the Chagres Rive.

                                                                                                                        

Gatun lake

MIRAFLORES LOCK

 is the name of one of the three locks that form part of the Panama Canal.

 In this lock , vessels are lifted (or lowered) 54 feet (16.5 m) in two stages, allowing them to transit to or from the Pacific Ocean port of Balboa (near Panama City).

Miraflores lock

CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS Construction costs = approximately $352 million

Paid to panama = $10 million paid to French company = $40 million,

money previously invested by the French = $287 million

the total expenditures were about $639 million.

DIFFICULTIES FACED DURING CONSTRUCTION:1. Disease : Yellow Fever, Malaria2. Excavation: where to put the dirt, and how to get it

there3. Canal Design: sea level or lock and dam4. Political Intrigue: who's country is this anyway?5. Manpower: who's gonna work under these

conditions?6. Financing: what comes after a billion? 7. Logistics: material and equipment on an

unprecedented scale.8. Military Applications: build forts and make sure the

battleships will fit.

BENEFITS The Panama Canal helped the import and export

of goods. This created jobs. Trading helped to increase the economy. Travel became easier and faster. environmental contribution. Saving Time. Experiencing Physics. Affordability.

PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION

The expansion of the Panama Canal is a project that will double the capacity of the Panama Canal by 2015.

Construction of two lock complexes—one each on the Atlantic and Pacific sides—each with three chambers, which include three water-saving basins;

Excavation of new access channels to the new locks and the widening of existing navigational channels; and

Deepening of the navigation channels and the elevation of Gatun Lake’s maximum operating level

CARGO VOLUME

cargo volume transiting the canal will grow at an average of 3 percent per year, doubling the 2005 tonnage by 2025. 

According to the analysis conducted by ACP and some Shipping experts the canal expansion would be beneficial to both the canal and its users.

COMPETITIONNorthwest Passage

Current competitors of the Panama Canal are the U.S. intermodal system and the Suez Canal.

THANK YOU..!!