Panamanians on October 22nd overwhelmingly endorsed a $5.25 billion plan to expand the Panama Canal to not only accommodate super cargo container ships but even the largest cruise ship now on the drawing boards.

With 94 percent of the votes counted in the referendum, 78 per cent of those voting had approved expansion of the historic waterway.

The Panama Canal expansion plan, slated for completion by 2014, centers on building a lane with new locks 1,400 feet long and 180 feet wide -- 40 percent longer and 64 percent wider than existing locks.

Canal entrances at both the Atlantic and Pacific ends would be widened and deepened, as well as the navigational channel through Gatun Lake.

The huge new 5,400-guest Genesis-class ship ordered by Royal Caribbean in February, at 1,180 feet long and 154 feet wide, easily would fit through the new locks.

By comparison, Royal Caribbean's Voyager class ships, the Princess Grand class ships, and Carnival's Conquest class ships -- not to mention Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas -- are among the almost two dozen cruise ships that currently cannot use the canal.

''It's an historic moment,'' Panamanian President Martín Torrijos told the press after voting. ``Today brings us the opportunity to open a new era for our country.''

Questions remain over costs, which will be paid primarily through higher tolls, with some estimates topping $10 billion.

Construction of the new lane would not interfere with passage of ships through the canal, according to the Panama Canal Authority, since the two current lanes would not be closed and construction would take place outside existing channels.