Panama canal construction

1. Panama Canal Construction Meet Chavda
M.Arch(P.M)

2. About the Panama Canal Construction…..
The Panama Canal is an artificial 77 km waterway in Panama that
connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.
The canal is recorded to be one of the busiest waterway
passage for huge carriers.
The Construction of Canal began in 1881 by French company
and ended in 1914.
The expansion of the canal was carried out gradually after 1914
and current expansion started in 2007 which ended in June
2016 for carriers having larger width.
Around 13000-14000 ships use the canal every year.
Every vessel that transits the canal must pay toll based on the
size of the carrier.
Tolls for the largest ship may run about $450000.
While the ships are moving through the canal, a system of locks raises the ship 85 ft above the sea level.
Ship captains aren’t allowed to transit the ships, there are specially trained canal pilots to drive through the canal.

3. Organisation problem at the initial stage of construction…
Ferdinand John Stevens
In 1881, a French company headed by
Ferdinand a former diplomat who developed
Egypt’s Suez Canal, began digging a canal
across Panama.
The project was plagued by poor planning,
engineering problems and tropical
diseases that killed thousands of workers.
He intended to build the canal at sea level,
without locks, like the Suez Canal, but the
excavation process proved far more
difficult than anticipated.
In 1889, the French company went bankrupt
with sinking $287 million.
70 million cubic yards of earth was already
excavated till then.
In 1902, Congress authorized the
purchase of the French assets,hence
an agreement was allowed to United
States to build the canal
Gustave Eiffel, who
designed the famous Eiffel
tower was then hired to
create locks for the canal

4. The deaths had been caused by yellow fever
and malaria; diseases at the time believed
were caused by bad air and dirty conditions
By the early 20th century, however, medical
experts better understood the role of
mosquitoes as carriers for these diseases,
allowing them to significantly reduce the
number of deaths among canal workers.
Safety and health issues….. Transportation as a challenge…
The transportation of men, supplies, and the soil
as it was being removed was solved by
construction of a railway line which greatly
helped to transfer the resources and also the
solid materials removed from canal cuts.

5. Working of locks and gate of the panama canal

6. Working of locks and gate of the panama canal

7. Thank You…