My grandfather worked as a structural engineer on the canel. I have old papers with calculations of stress on the concrete, done by hand. http://www.archive.org

My grandfather worked as a structural engineer on the canel. I have old papers with calculations of stress on the concrete, done by hand. http://www.archive.org/details/panama-canal-lock-design-papers http://www.archive.org/details/panama-canal-lock-design-pape... Anyway, since container ships are driving this expansion, I wonder if this is a case of scaling the old thing up unncessarily when new technology allows a different solution. Perhaps an overland transport for the containers across the ishthmus? Seems it would depend on the time needed to unload+load a container ship. Transit time through the canal is 8-10 hours, so if a ship can be turned around in that amount of time, it could be economical to not send it through the canal. I've found some indications that a unload+load can be done in 10-12 hours.