Panama Canal expansion

Costing a total of $5.3 billion and taking two years longer than originally scheduled, the expansion project at the Panama Canal, begun in September 2007, at press time was scheduled to begin accepting ships on June 26. 

The expansion adds another lane of traffic that more than doubles the size of ships that can be accommodated, from those that can hold up to 5,000 TEUs (or Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, which roughly indicate a ship’s capacity for 20-foot containers) to those at 13,000 TEUs. 

The new canal’s greater width can accept all current cruise ships, although the largest cruise ships are too tall to fit under the Bridge of the Americas during the transit.