The Panama Canal Expansion
By Juan Carlos Martinez
The existing Panama Canal is one of the great wonders of the world. A marvelous feat of engineering started in 1881 and finished in 1914, the technology used to operate it earned it a place among the handful of global great wonders. The Panama Canal Expansion with a third set of locks is another feat of modern engineering. The Expansion officially started on August 25th, 2009 and in these short 9 months the panorama you see when you visit the Canal is in many places vastly different.
The work taking place currently is mostly removing material, clearing the areas of vegetation and in some cases of munitions and explosive debris as well. The dredging of both the Pacific and the Atlantic side have also begun under diverse contracts being carried out by international companies who won the bids such as Jan de Nul, Constructora Urbana, Dredging International and MECO. The ACP has indicated that the work is proceeding on schedule and in some cases even ahead of schedule. The rainy season is now here however work is expected to proceed with no delays.
As soon as the areas are clear of vegetation, wildlife, explosives debris and ready to be worked on immediately other teams come in to prepare the access roads, assemble the equipment, set up structures such as laboratories, storage areas, office space, etc. Still other crews are busy with the design and building of the concrete manufacturing and rock crushing plant and the accompanying industrial installations they require such as power and water.
The Panama Canal Expansion is based on three simple elements which are designed to allow more tonnage to transit through the Canal. The current Canal is similar to a two lane highway and the Expansion is nothing more than adding a third lane. What will happen during the Expansion is that two new set of locks will be built, one set on the Atlantic side and one set on the Pacific side, each with three chambers which shall each include three water reutilization basins. New access channels to the new locks will be excavated and the existing channels will be widened. The existing channels will also be deepened and the operational level of Gatun lake will be raised.
The new locks will be built almost parallel to the existing locks and the new access channels being excavated will connect the new locks to the existing navigation channels which will be widened and deepened to accommodate bigger ships, post-Panamax ships. The modification of the existing channels will allow cross navigation and the passage of one post-Panamax vessel and one Panamax vessel at the same time.
The new locks will use more modern technology such as rolling gates instead of miter gates and the ships will be put into place by tugboats instead of locomotives. This is a deviation from the current lock technology demanded by the post-Panamax size of the vessels expected to transit through these locks. Rolling gates are currently commonly used in locks of similar size mostly because they do not require removal to be maintained. The current miter gates have to be removed for maintenance and then replaced. A process which stops transit while it is being carried out while with rolling gates transit may continue during maintenance. The reason for using tugboats instead of the current system of locomotives for placing the vessels within the chamber was the size of post-Panamax vessels which are expected to transit through the new locks. During the study it was estimated that new locomotives a lot more potent than the current ones would have to be built and it would take between 12 to 16 locomotives to place a single post-Panamax within the chamber. In addition to this the cost of building would increase as the walls of the chambers would have to be substantially reinforced to be able to hold the weight of the locomotives.
The water reutilization basins are also new technology to the Panama Canal and they are in line with the Expansion's mandate to decrease the environmental impact as much as possible. The water reutilization basins reduce water volume used in the new locks and will allow Gatun lake to be a living, fresh and stable ecosystem and the water quality to remain usable for human consumption.
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