An historic day for Panama

Thousandss of red, white and blue balons soar over Cerro Paraíso to
celebrate the start of the project. Photo: Panama Canal Authority.

The President of the Republic, Martín Torrijos pushed a switch at 11:50 a.m. on Monday, September 3 to detonate two charges of 32,000 pounds of explosives, to start the widening works of the Panama Canal. More than 30,000 people witnessed the explosion that destroyed part of Paraíso Hill and began the construction of a parallel canal at a cost of $5,200 million.

The presidents of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe; El Salvador, Antonio Saca; Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega; Honduras, Manuel Zelaya and the former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter came to the event, as well as government officials, the national and international press and a great number of people, who traveled from the interior to participate in this historic event.

Around 130 million cubic meters of material will need to be dug. The company responsible for the first phase of the project, Constructora Urbana S.A. (CUSA) will reduce Paraíso Hill from 136 meters to 46, in 945 days, using eight million pounds of explosives. The company will work for 18 hours days and will dedicate the nights to maintenance.

Some of the workers have been trained abroad, to avoid accidents.

They are also contemplating cleaning of the area of live ammunition from firing ranges abandoned by the U.S. military, before continuing with the excavations and special operations will be mounted to rescue animals from the working area.