The Panama Canal has been undergoing a 5.5 billion dollar expansion project since March of 2011 and has finally officially opened, as of Sunday, June 26, 2016.  The mega project included a new, third set of locks, which lift passing ships up and down the differing elevations of the Canal; a new Pacific access channel, which required the excavation of roughly 65 million cubic yards (50 million cubic meters); a navigation channel improvement; and improvements to the water supply.