PANAMA CANAL CASE STUDY

PROJECT SUCCESS AND FAILURE AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM

CASE STUDY
Introduction:
-The Panama Canal is an artificial 48-mile (77
km) waterway in Panama that connects the
Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.

-The canal is not just a “path” of water

between the two oceans. There are a series
of 6 locks in two parallel tracks that raise and
lower ships between the Caribbean Sea and
Pacific Ocean.

−It is one of the largest and most difficult

engineering projects ever undertaken .
Introduction:
-The locks had to be built because
of the terrain. The highest point is
85 feet above sea level.

-The locks are about 1000 feet

long, so ships must be shorter than
that to pass through.

-A ship pays over $200K in cash to

enter the canal and It takes six to
eight hours to pass through .

-Annual traffic has risen from about

1,000 ships in 1914, when the
canal opened, to 815,000 vessels
in 2012 .
Stages of construction :
Colombia, France, and later the United
States controlled the territory surrounding
the canal during stages of construction.

The stages are :

1-French construction attempts, 1881–1894 .

2- United States construction attempts 1904–1914 .

French construction attempts 1881–1894 :
-In 1881 Ferdinand De Lesseps, the French
engineer who built the Suez Canal, began to dig
the canal.
-The laborers and engineers began to dig the
canal at sea level , but by 1885 it had become
clear to many that a sea-level canal was
impractical, and an elevated canal with locks was
preferable; de Lesseps resisted, and a lock canal
plan was not adopted until October 1887.
-By this time increasing mortality rates, as well as
financial and engineering problems coupled with floods and mudslides
frequent floods and mudslides, indicated that the
project was in serious trouble.
French construction attempts 1881–
1894 :

-Work continued under the new plan

until May 15, 1889, when the company
went bankrupt and the project was
suspended.

-After eight years the canal was about

two-fifths completed, and about $234.8
million had been spent .

-An estimated 22,000 workers had died.

The project was years behind schedule
and hundreds of millions over budget The culebra cut after French give up the project
2-United States construction attempts 1904–1914 :

-The precedent of the United states Roosevelt offered 40$ million to

French for the rights to build the canal , and offered the Colombian
10$ million in order to gain control over the fifty-mile strip.
-In May 4, 1904 – the beginning of the U.S. canal building efforts and
the workers had to put with the heat and mosquitoes that carried
malaria .
-the American adopt methods that had to be undertaken to fight the
mosquitoes carrying malaria included :
1-Clearing 200-yard areas around where people lived and worked .
2-Drained more than 100 square of swamp .
3-Cutting hundreds of acres of wild vegetation .
4-Breeding spiders , ants , lizards to feed on adult insects .
The efforts paid off and the number of deaths from malaria reduced
dramatically.
2-United States construction attempts 1904–1914 :
-1906 the decision which type of canal to build was made
, It was the chef engineer of the project , John Frank
Stevens , who convinced Roosevelt to build a lock canal
as opposed to sea level canal and he estimated that the
project could be completed by 1914 .
-Landslides increased the amount of excavation
;however, the project did not fall behind schedule .
-January 7 , 1914 – the first complete panama canal
passage and August 15,1914 was the scheduled day for
an opening ceremony but celebration was cancelled due
to world war 1 .
-The total cost of the canal : 375,000,000 ( including
10 $ million paid to panama and 40 $ million paid to 1914 Panama Canal Opening Sat Pedro Miguel Lo
French ).
-Fortification cost an extra 12,000,000.
-5,609 total lives lost .
Locks and dams :
-Three sets of locks : Gatun , Pedro Miguel , Miraflores .

Miraflores locks Gatun locks

Why was France unsuccessful in its Why was USA Successful in its
attempts to build the Panama Canal? attempts to build the Panama canal?
A-Bad Design:
As originally designed the Canal wasn't to have any locks, but it turned out to A-Good design :
be unfeasible for the Panama Canal.
The American plan is more feasible than the French plan
They didn't done a good surveying of project location area before they got and decided to build the canal on different levels
started. connected by three sets of locks .

B- Bad Management : B- Fighting diseases:

French suffered during the construction of the canal to the corruption of
financial management, as well as political corruption. All this led to the
company in charge of building a canal to declare bankruptcy on May 15, 1889
.
The French did not know that mosquitoes were
responsible for malaria and yellow fever. The Americans
discovered that and did many efforts to fight the diseases .
C- Equipment used:

C-Tropical Climate : The French effort at building the canal took place in the late
1880's. The American effort took place about twenty years
Tropical climates are nasty environments for construction projects.
later, and involved more efficient and more resilient building
D- Disease : equipment.

The disease like Yellow fever and malaria were serious problems for the
construction effort .
Conclusion:
* The panama canal project is a successful project in general, It is an
important part of International shipping , without it, ships would have sail
near the poles of the Americas to get from one ocean to the other.

* One of the unexpected benefits of building the Panama Canal was the
discovery that mosquitoes carry yellow fever and malaria.

*And we learned that a successful project should have :

Skilled leadership in place.

Skilled stuff and labour.

Suitable investigation of the site.

Tools and machines suitable for the project