The post-Panamax era in Florida came one step closer to reality in October, when four 25-story-tall cranes arrived at PortMiami after a nearly three-month journey from Shanghai. The gigantic “super post-Panamax” cranes are required to unload the huge, container-laden ships that are expected to call at the port after the Panama Canal expansion is finished in mid-2015.
At 262 feet tall, the cranes can work simultaneously, reaching over 22 containers of cargo to remove containers from a ship. They can stretch to the top of 11-container stacks and are capable of unloading ships even larger than those that will be able to transit the expanded Panama Canal. They join two other super post-Panamax cranes the port already had.
In November, workers began dredging PortMiami’s shipping channel from a depth of 50 feet to 52 feet so it can accommodate the larger ships that will fit through Panama’s expanded canal.