The Panama Canal has been undergoing a 5.5 billion dollar expansion project since March of 2011 and has finally officially opened, as of Sunday, June 26, 2016. The mega project included a new, third set of locks, which lift passing ships up and down the differing elevations of the Canal; a new Pacific access channel, which required the excavation of roughly 65 million cubic yards (50 million cubic meters); a navigation channel improvement; and improvements to the water supply.
The 5 year long project was a major employer throughout the project, as well, totaling over 40 thousand cumulative jobs, 39,333 of which were contractors and subcontractors. As of January of 2016, over 5.2 million yards of concrete have been poured (4 million cubic meters).
From the beginning to the end of the project, EarthCam shot 4k video footage and has recently released a timelapse video of the entire process, with over 142 different webcam angles. It’s pretty extraordinary to watch crews build the massive and complex system in such a short period of time.
On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.