[USAnum1]

Panamax ships are the absolute maximum size of ship the Panama Canal can handle (eg: PANAma canal MAXimum). [0]

Edit: Obviously, the canal is now larger. So Panamax in this case refers to ships that maxed out the old maximum size.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax

[Animats]

And they really mean "absolute max". See these pictures of Panamax ships being carefully squeezed through the locks.[1]

The original two lock lanes were built in 1917, and they were built big for the time. But bigger ships are now available and won't fit. So the Panama Canal Authority just finished a third lock lane, with longer, wider, and deeper locks, for larger ships.[2] There were problems with the new construction, including serious leaks in the concrete. But the new locks open for business in 10 days.

Here's good drone imagery of the new locks being used by a ship for the first test run.[3]

If you're really into this, here's a video of the basic operational procedures for using the new locks.[4] A maximum sized, fully loaded container ship pays about $1M in tolls for each transit. That's about $85 per container. There's a loyalty program for regular customers, with discounts.

[1] http://www.canalmuseum.com/canalphotos/panamax.htm [2] http://micanaldepanama.com/expansion/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA2TyFxbH9Q [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQrKAku3e0

[alienasa]

One of the other things the new locks do is try to save water. The lake at the center of Panama is at a higher elevation than the ocean on either side - each time the locks are cycled water flows from the lake to the oceans.

The water in the lake is only refilled during Panama's rainy season, and drought conditions in recent years have on occasion made it necessary to put restrictions on the ships transiting the system.[1]

Those huge basins next to the new locks in the video are a water cycling system. They aim to capture a significant percentage of the water as they cycle the locks and then re-use it, rather than just draining the lakes.

[1] http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/panama-canal-re...

[toyg]

One thing that baffles me is the fact that ok, the third lane is bigger; but it's one lane vs the existing two. If everyone started using only New Panamax ships, they would effectively cut in half the number of ships that can go through (and would likely have congestion issues because of alternating directions of travel). Just to balance that, new ships should have 100% more capacity, but spec numbers look 50% bigger at best.

Is there a plan to enlarge at least one of the existing lanes, once the new lane is open?

[unwind]

That was a great video, really awesome scale of engineering here.

I love how it refers to the "high mast lighting" [1] as "high mast lightNing" in both the speech and on-screen text.

I guess they're not all native speakers (neither am I, to be clear). It's kind of a "honey pot" in English that I somehow tend to be sensitive to. :)

[1] http://s-steel.com/3755-2/