Panama Canal

When the project was announced nearly 10 years ago, the new-and-improved 77-kilometer waterway through the narrow Isthmus that connects North and South America was expected to reopen for business in time for the 100th anniversary of the Canal in 2014. But the daunting engineering challenge of building a third set of new locks—and a toxic combination of legal and labor issues—rendered that deadline unrealistic almost from the get-go.