Improvements in the Panama Canal

Abstract

The Panama Canal, together with the Suez Canal, is an engineering accomplishment which is now regarded as a master work marking the initiation of modern civil engineering. Other projects, also of great magnitude, do not seem to maintain the reputation of the above two, because they cannot continue to serve their function with sustained usefulness in the new circumstances of today. The Panama Canal, with its limited dock capacity, and the narrow, so called Serpent, canal, has had to cope with a continuously increasing volume of shipping traffic; a natural consequence of commercial evolution. In order to keep up with these increasing demands, it has been necessary to carry out an almost uninterrupted series of modifications and improvements, affecting both the method of operation and organisation, and the actual nature of the canal. Thanks to these alterations the Panama Canal has continued to maintain, at least nominally, an adequate standard of functional efficiency. At present the canal is being widened over certain sections to enable the easy passage of ships of great displacement. The work is being done very rapidly, and in order to gain time, it has been distributed to various contractors simultaneously.