alternatehistory.com

Okay, I was just reading about the Panama Canal expansion project, and was surprised to find out that there had been an expansion started in the 1940s, but that it had been cancelled due to the war and never restarted afterwards. Digging around for specifics, wikipedia gives the then planned new lock sizes as 1200 ft long (compared to 1050 ft for the old locks), 140 ft wide (compared to 110 ft) and 45 ft deep (compared to 41.2 ft). These sizes were figured enough to accommodate the planned Montana class battleships, but since they never eventuated, and given there were more essential projects beckoning by the time work was stopped in 1942, the new locks never actually got completed.

So, what would it take to get construction of those new locks either continued past 1942 or restarted after the war?
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