Expansion of the Panama
Canal, which began five years ago, is now about halfway finished, according to the
government agency overseeing the project.
The Panama Canal Authority
revealed Sept. 25 that the project, which is expected to double the canal’s capacity
by 2014, was almost 45 percent complete as of Aug. 31, 2012. The project, which
was officially kicked off in September 2007, creates a new lane of traffic along
the canal by constructing a new set of locks.
The expansion “is moving
forward at a good pace,” according to Panama Canal Administrator/CEO Jorge Quijano.
Among the project’s components
are the excavations of new access channels, the widening of existing channels and
the deepening of navigation channels. The expansion is expected to allow post-Panamax
ships to travel through the canal en route to East Coast terminals, something that
could negatively affect West Coast vessel traffic.
A key component of the expansion
is construction of two new ship lock system complexes -- one each on the Atlantic
and Pacific sides. The current lock system lifts ships of up to 85 feet to the main
elevation of the Panama Canal and down again. According to the Authority, design
and construction of the expanded locks, which could accommodate larger ships, has
reached 31 percent.
The locks gates are being
fabricated in Italy and the first four gates should be shipped to Panama during
the first quarter of 2013, according to the Canal Authority. The contractor’s expected
to complete the main lock structure and begin pre-commissioning tests in the dry
during the first quarter of 2014, with flooding of the locks and final commissioning
then planned to start in September 2014.
