June 22, 2015
New Panama Canal: Flooding of the New Canal on the Pacific Side
NEW WEBSITE IN THREE LANGUAGES DEDICATE TO THE PROJECT AND WORK IN PROGRESS
June 22, 2015 – The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are coming closer together thanks to the new Panama Canal. Flooding of part of the new set of locks on the Pacific side is being carried shortly after the successful operation was conducted on the Atlantic. The project, known as the Third Set of Locks, is rushing towards completion next year. The international consortium that is building the canal and led at the operational level by Salini Impregilo will begin within two weeks a series of stress tests on the giant lock gates. Built in Italy, these sliding gates were installed in the locks at the end of March. The tests, which will focus on the opening and closing of the sliding gates, will last for the remainder of the year.
As the flooding of the Pacific side surges forth, an initial boat tour by Salini Impregilo and other members of the consortium in charge of the construction entered part of the canal. Like a hydraulic lift, the locks of the canal will raise boats to the level of Gatun Lake, which sits more than 27 metres higher than the level of either ocean. Passing through the canal once it is completed next year will be giant, post-Panamax ships that are nearly 400 meters long with a capacity of up to 14,000 containers - three times more than the ships that use the existing canal.
Imagines of the boat tour with close views of the gates fitted in their niches can be viewed on a new website dedicated to the project in English, Italian and Spanish.
This massive project has seen the excavation of 50 million metric cubes of earth, the pouring of five million metric cubes of concrete, the use of 290,000 tonnes of iron and the work of more than 10,000 workers. The lock gates are – on average – about 35 meters tall, 10 meters wide and 55 meters long. Each weighs more than 4,000 tonnes.