New Panama Canal Locks Tested

By Mark Edward Nero

The Panama Canal has announced that Grupo Unidos por el Canal, the consortium responsible for the design and construction of the Third Set of Locks Project, has successfully completed testing of the reinforcements in sill no. 3 of the Cocolí locks.

GUPC technical personnel, the designers and Panama Canal Authority specialists monitored the testing process, which consisted of gradually raising the water behind the lock gate to the level in which the seepage was first detected in sill no. 3 last year.

The Panama Canal Authority revealed last September that during stress testing of new locks for the Panama Canal, water seepage was found in a specific area of the new Pacific Ocean-side locks in a section separating the middle and lower chambers.

The localized seepage was determined to be the result of insufficient steel reinforcement in the area that was subjected to stress from extreme condition testing. After examination of all the other sills in both lock complexes, GUPC stated that in addition to reinforcing the sill that presented the issue, it would also reinforce the sills in the first two sets of locks as a preventative measure, even though the sills have not presented any issue.

Later, the testing was inspected by a team of independent experts, professors and structural engineers from the Technological University of Panama, all of whom expressed satisfaction with the final results, the Panama Canal Authority said in mid-February.

Currently, the Authority said, the project manager is testing the electromechanical components necessary for the expanded Canal to operate.

The $5 billion Panama Canal expansion is expected to allow post-Panamax ships to travel through the canal en route to East Coast terminals, thereby bypassing the US West Coast.

Less than four percent remains to complete the overall project, according to the Authority; an inauguration is planned for later this year.

Panama Canal Authority: Leaks Fixed Next Month

By Mark Edward Nero

Repairs of leaks detected in the newly constructed third set of locks of the long-awaited Panama Canal expansion are expected to be completed in January, the contractor overseeing the project said Nov. 28.

During a joint press conference with the Panama Canal Authority, contractor Grupo Unidos por el Canal said that ongoing work to reinforce the sills in the new locks should be complete by the end of next month.

As part of its remaining work, Grupo Unidos por el Canal is conducting inspections and reinforcements of each individual sill. It also plans to continue the electromechanical testing on the filling and emptying systems of the new locks.

The additional work became required after stress testing of new locks for the Panama Canal revealed water seepage in a specific area of the new Pacific Ocean-side locks in a section that separates the middle chamber and lower chamber.

Despite the setback, the expansion project has now reached 95 percent completion, according to the Canal Authority, and work continues in other areas of the project.

The $5 billion Panama Canal expansion is expected to allow post-Panamax ships to travel through the canal en route to East Coast terminals, thereby bypassing the US West Coast. It was initially scheduled to be complete in 2014 to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the opening of the existing canal, but snafus have delayed the completion by two years so far.

Panama Canal Workers End Strike

By Mark Edward Nero

Construction workers in Panama have ended a strike that had shut down work on the expansion of the Panama Canal for more than two weeks.

On May 8, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, the consortium expanding the waterway, said in a statement that work had partially resumed on the project and was expected to gradually return in the coming days.

About 700 construction workers walked off the job April 24 demanding higher wages and better working conditions. The strike not only put a halt to a project to build a third set of locks for the Panama Canal, but hundreds of other projects around the world run by the consortium.

The strike came just six days after the president of Panama and other officials inaugurated the $3.1 billion latest phase of the canal expansion project, which includes construction of a new ship lock system complex and new waterway bridge. The current lock system lifts ships of up to 85 feet to the main elevation of the Panama Canal and down again. The new locks could accommodate larger ships.

The consortium has not said whether the strike is expected to affect the targeted December 2015 completion date for the canal expansion. The finish date for the $5.25 billion has already been pushed back multiple times from the original time frame of October 2014.