A larger Panama Canal and American battleships

How would a larger Panama Canal affect warship construction during the world wars?

American ships would grow to the new canal limit, but widening the locks and cuts would multiply construction difficulty and cost; wider battleships could gain fuller bows and better buoyancy.

The canal's dimensions acted as a fleet-design boundary because American ships needed to shift between oceans. A wider passage would let designers increase beam and give battleships fuller, more buoyant bows. The new dimensions would quickly become the next practical limit on American warship size. Wider locks and cuts through difficult geology would multiply the project's cost and construction burden, so the gain could not be obtained by simply scaling every feature upward.