Seminary in Panama: Old and New - Panama Canal and Military Base

On a recent trip I was brought to visit Fuerte San Lorenzo, the fort which protected the coast of Panama during the 18^th century (see previous post). On the way to visit the fort we passed something really interesting which are the new lock gates for the Panama Canal.

With the development of modern shipping the Panama Canal, as built by the North Americans in 1914 has proved inadequate. Quite simply, the canal can’t cope with the new “super-ships” that are currently plying the world’s oceans. Up until now the solution has been to unload these ships at one or other end of the canal and transport the merchandise via train to the other side where it has been loaded on to another ship to continue its journey. This is, obviously, a time-consuming, and for this reason costly, operation. Some other solution has been necessary for some time.

A number of years ago it was decided to increase the size of the canal. In fact, what this amounts to is making more channels through which boats can pass. This “new canal” will be both deeper and wider than the current one and will function in conjunction with it. This new arrangement will increase the overall capacity of the canal significantly.

Even thought there have been significant delays in the construction of what is known here as the Amplification of the Canal (Ampliación del Canal), the work is expected to conclude next year (2015) when, it is hoped, everything will be up and running. One of the big delays has been that the contractor used concrete that only had a guarantee for 25 years when he was supposed to use concrete that had a guarantee for 100 years – things have dragged on as a protracted legal wrangle went on and this has just been resolved (and the correct concrete has been put in – just in case you are planning a trip in 26 years’ time or so).

On our trip to the fort we passed the newly-arrived (and newly-built in Italy) gates for the new locks that will be necessary for the functioning of the canal extension.

These gates, 8 in total, are each approximately 8 storeys high and, when laid side by side, would cover an area equivalent to the size of 4 soccer pitches. Unlike the lock gates that are currently in use, these gates will not open via a hinge system – they are more akin to sliding doors.

This was a unique opportunity to see these gates before they are put in position as, after that, they will only ever be partially visible. In the photos you can get an idea of the scale of these feats of engineering by using the tug boats as a guide – these are full-sized tugs used to guide huge ships in and out of harbours (and, of course, the Panama Canal).

I also include here some photos of an area known as Sherman which is an abandoned American military base which was used to protect the canal. The Panamanian air force has a small base built close by but the barracks area of the original base is, as you can see from the photos, in a state of dereliction.

It’s interesting to note that Panama doesn’t have a standing army. The only force for public order here is the Police although it has to be acknowledged that the Panamanian Police force is as well armed as any modern army – whether or not they have armoured cars and tanks I don’t know but, in terms of small arms, rifles, and machine guns etc. they are very well equipped. My own guess is that after the overthrow of Noriega people had had enough of the army which was always a sort of sinister presence in the background for civil government, and that is why they have done away with it.