The ART Of Business

Milestone for Panama Canal Expansion

Sept. 1, 2013

The first set of massive gates for the new locks have arrived!

It was a big week for the Panama Canal Expansion, one of the biggest engineering and supply chain projects happening anywhere.

The first set of gates for the Canal's new locks arrived from the Port of Trieste.

Built by Cimolai SpA, each gate is 189 feet long, 33 feet wide and 99 feet high; and, weighs an average of 3,100 tons.

Here is a link to a real cool video -- only a minute, thirty seconds in length -- on the first set’s arrival.

The expanded Panama Canal will require a total of 16 such gates.

The gates are being shipped four at a time from Italy.

Currently, the expansion is about 62 percent complete, according to the Panama Canal Authority.

Scheduled for completion in mid-2015, the project involves the construction of a third lane of traffic to accommodate the passage of Post-Panamax vessels.

About the Author

Andrew R. Thomas Blog | Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business

Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron; and, a member of the core faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.

His book The Distribution Trap was awarded the Berry-American Marketing Association Prize for the Best Marketing Book of 2010. Another work, Direct Marketing in Action, was a finalist for the same award in 2008.

Andrew is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Security and a regularly featured analyst for media outlets around the world.

He has traveled to and conducted business in 120 countries on all seven continents.