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In some places the banks of the Panama Canal have never reached their "angle of repose," at which landslides no longer occur. Thus the dredging work has continued since the canal opened in 1914, because landslides create shoals that can be hazardous to navigation. Moreover, in recent years the Panama Canal Authority and its precursor Panama Canal Commission have been widening Gaillard (Culebra) Cut and deepening the ship channel through Gatun Lake, and that means more work for the dredges.

Shown above is the Japanese-built Rialto M. Christensen, the world's largest dipper dredge that has been part of the Panama Canal's fleet since 1977. This past February 19 the Christensen dug up 7,800 cubic yards of muck and debris from the bottom of Gatun Lake in an eight-hour shift, and that broke a record that hadn't been topped since October of 1916, when the Cascadas dredged up 7,700 cubic yards of material in one shift.

The photo is courtesy of the Panama Canal Authority.


Also in this section:
Business & Economy Briefs
Old Panama Canal dredging record broken
Anatomy of a scam, Part 1
Our March web statistics

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