29/04/2015

The group will begin to flood the locks over the coming weeks


Led by Sacyr, the consortium responsible for the Panama Canal Expansion, Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), has completed the installation of the 16 gates being added as part of the third set of locks project.

The group finished installing the last gate in the Pacific sector yesterday, complying with project's stipulated timetable.

With this new milestone the work of fitting the gates into their niche using a precisely calculated mechanism, one of the most complex phases of the project, is now complete.

The design and successful execution of the world's largest civil engineering project to date posed a great challenge for Sacyr, requiring extremely high technical and technological skill.

Located at the southern end of the new locks, the gate installed yesterday measures 57.6 meters wide, 10 meters long, 33 meters high and weighs 4,232 tons. The group will now begin to connect the gates in the Pacific sector to their corresponding electromechanical elements in order to proceed with running lock operating and transit tests

The gates designed by GUPC use a technology that is already employed in other countries: instead of being hinged like the current gates, the new gates will be submerged and rolling for easier maintenance. It will take between four and five minutes to open and close the gates.

The group will begin to flood the locks in the Atlantic sector over the coming weeks. More than 20 million cubic meters of water from Gatun Lake will be used to finish flooding the two sets of locks.

Operating tests will last until early 2016.

N.P_ 16 gates of the Panama Canal Expansion
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