Panama Canal | Pedro Miguel Locks | 360º Video | Time Lapse
Channel: virKtual
Date: 2021-05-25

Pedro Miguel Locks

To the far right, we can see the Centennial Bridge.

In front in the distance we see a black Post Panamax type ship, and closely a Panamax that enters the Pedro Miguel locks to be lowered to sea level.

A Panamax type ship, came to be applied to ships of the maximum size, 965 feet overall length, 106 feet beam, and 39 feet draft.  The newest container ships of that size can carry nearly 5000 twenty feet equivalent units, the exact size that passes through the original canal locks, many times leaving only inches between the ship's hull and the lock walls, which is why only the Pilots of the ACP (Panama Canal Authority) are authorized to navigate them across the canal.

Post Panamax was the term given to ships that did not meet the dimension criteria for Panamax vessels, but this all changed with the opening of the new lane in 2016. There are now many container and passenger ships and supertankers that can travel through the expanded locks. These ships are called Post Panamax, Neo Panamax, or New Panamax.

The expansion project of the canal created locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides that are 70 feet wider and 18 feet deeper than the original waterways.
The measurement of the locks in this new second lane are 1,400 feet in length, 180 feet in width and the draft is 60 feet.

The larger New Panamaxvessels are built to travel through this wider lane with the requirements to be no more than 1,200 feet in length, 160 feet in width and with a draft of 50 feet.

A cargo vessel of this size has a load capacity of about 13,000 containers or TEUs. Cruise ships as large as Norwegian Bliss with 4,004 passengers can now transverse the canal, which is a major change for the cruise industry. This expansion project has opened up the Panama Canal itinerary for the world's largest cruise ships, this expansion cost $5.25 billion.