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Lock gates arrive in Panama for canal expansion

Lock gates arrive in Panama for canal expansion
The first set of four gates that will be installed in the Panama canal’s new locks, have arrived in the country.

They were welcomed by Panama President Ricardo Martinelli and members of the Panama Canal Authority board of directors, at Davis, on the Atlantic entrance of the waterway, onboard of the Marshall Islands-flagged STX Sun Rise.

Two of the gates are destined for the Atlantic side and two for the Pacific side

The construction of the gates, designed by Netherlands-based IV Groep under the direction of Montgomery Watson Harza –was awarded, by the consortium building the third set of locks, GUPC, to Italian shipyard and bridge builder Cimolai SpA that began the fabrication of the gates in October 2011.

The 16 gates will have dimensions of up to 57.6 m x 10 m x 33 m, weighing up to 4,200 tonnes each and using 49,000 tonnes of steel for all the gates.

The gate design varies between the Pacific and Atlantic locks. The gates to be used in the Atlantic locks will weigh 2,700 tonnes each, while those on the Pacific side will weigh 4,200 tonnes because of more robust seismic requirements and higher tides.

The gates will continue to be shipped in groups of four, until March 2014. They will be installed in dry conditions, giving the GUPC consortium that is building the locks, the facility of installing the gates while finishing the construction of the water saving basins and locks chamber walls.

The total expansion programme of the canal was 62% completed as at the end of July 2013. The construction of the Atlantic locks will be finished and ready to be flooded in July 2014 to perform the tests, followed by tests for vessel transits in the same locks likely to start in December 2014, and in April 2015,  the Pacific locks will be ready, commented GUPC project director Bernardo Gonzalez.