Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/653001
I DA U N I V E R S A L M a rc h -A p r i l 2 0 1 6 34 Over the past 500 years, the Panamanian isthmus has been transformed by a succes- sion of megaprojects: the fi rst colonial European city on the Pacifi c Coast; the mule trains that moved the plundered silver of Bolivia and Peru to Atlantic ports; the fi rst railroad to cross the continental divide; the failed project to construct a sea-level canal connecting the two oceans; and then the immense complex of locks, dams, artifi cial lakes, and engineered channels that constitute the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914. Now the canal is being reconfi gured by a $5.5 billion expansion project, scheduled for completion early next year. Approved by national refer- endum in 2006, the expan- sion effectively doubles the canal's capacity by adding a new set of locks to accom- modate larger container ships. Chambers with walls 50 feet thick are being grafted directly onto bedrock, like extensions of the isthmus itself. But the construction – monumental as it is – is only a small part of the story. More important is how the Panama Canal expansion is altering logistical relationships and generating new infrastruc- tures throughout the American Hemisphere. Almost as soon as the referendum passed, port authorities from Miami to Lima began racing to complete their own expansion programs: dredging deeper shipping channels, installing larger gantry cranes, and building new container yards, in specu- lative efforts to compete for the ultra-large container ships that will transit the widened canal. An intense wave of anticipation ripples outward throughout the multi-conti- nental network of waterways, ports, inspection stations, railroads, switching yards, highways, warehouses, and distribution centers that enable Leviathans on the Horizon The shockwave of Panama Canal expansion is reshaping cities throughout the Americas. We need to look through the lens of landscape, not logistics. [Panama Canal Authority] Chambers with walls 50 feet thick are being grafted directly onto bedrock, like extensions of the isthmus itself.