More than 20,000 spectators, international delegations, Canal customers, shipowners and liner ceos watched the 9,478 teu-Marshall Islands-flagged Cosco Shipping Panama slowly transiting the Pacific Cocoli locks while President Juan Carlos Varela formally declared inaugurated the expanded Panama Canal. The lock chambers are 427 m long, 55 m wide and 18.3 m deep. Compared with the original Panama Canal, these new locks are 40% longer and 60% wider, improved by a system of water-saving basins that will use 7% less water than the original locks and save 60% per lockage.
