What the Panama Canal imposed on US warships

What if the US ignored the Panama Canal's width when designing interwar warships, or expanded the canal?

Expansion improves design freedom; ignoring the limit without expansion destroys much of the canal's two-ocean strategic value.

A larger canal would permit beamier ships and ease some hull-form compromises, including the pressure toward unusual stern forms. Building ships too wide for the existing locks without expanding them, however, divides the fleet between Atlantic and Pacific routes. Reinforcement would again require long voyages around South America, adding time, machinery wear, and fuel demand. The answer demonstrates how civil infrastructure can be a first-order naval design and force-concentration constraint.