PANAMA Canal Authority (ACP) has announced that 83 per cent of the Panama Canal expansion project has been completed and that the important electro-mechanical installation phase has commenced with the installation of the first steel rolling gate on the Atlantic side.
With the arrival of the last four of the 16 rolling gates for the new locks in November and the transfer of eight gates for the Pacific-side locks through the waterway, all electro-mechanical components are ready to be installed. All gates are to be installed by mid-2015, an ACP statement said.
The massive steel structures weigh on average 3,400 tons. The gates vary in size depending on their location (Pacific or Atlantic) and their position on the locks chambers.
The tallest of all gates is 33metres high, the equivalent of an 11-story building. The rolling system facilitates gate maintenance.
A major component of the canal's expansion is the construction of the new locks. Already, much of the 4.4 million cubic metres of concrete needed has been poured, giving form to the structure and making the locks visible.
In addition, 94 per cent of the works required to be able to operate the new water level of Gatun Lake have been completed.
Currently, excavations of the Pacific Access Channel (PAC) are 82.2 per cent complete. The PAC is a 6.7-kilometre-long channel designed to provide navigation access to and from the new Pacific locks to the existing Culebra Cut section, the narrowest stretch of the Panama Canal.
Three of the four PAC phases needed for its execution are now complete.
The fourth and final phase (PAC-4) registered an important milestone this month with completion of the grout curtain for the Borinquen 1E Dam.
WORLD SHIPPING
29 December 2014 - 21:11
Panama Canal starts to install first of waterway's steel rolling gates
PANAMA Canal Authority (ACP) has announced that 83 per cent of the Panama Canal expansion project has been completed and that the important electro-mechanical installation phase has commenced with the installation of the first steel rolling gate on the Atlantic side.
WORLD SHIPPING
29 December 2014 - 21:11
Panama Canal starts to install first of waterway's steel rolling gates
This news 8510 hits received.
These news may also interest you