The four gates arrived on board the Post-Panamax vessel Xia Zhi Yuan 6 owned by Cosco, after a 25-day voyage from the Port of Trieste in Italy. The four gates arrived to the temporary dock located in the Atlantic side, and will be used two and two in the Atlantic locks and the Pacific locks. At end September, the construction of the locks was 77% complete and the expansion, as a whole, had reached 81% completion.
"We are now in the homestretch to complete the expansion,” said Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela who was present at the arrival of the gates.
"This is a major milestone for the Panama Canal expansion since we now have all 16 rolling gates in Panama to be installed in the new locks," said Panama Canal Administrator Jorge L. Quijano. Once inaugurated the expansion will open new markets and allow the waterway to remain competitive, said Quijano.
The two gates to be installed in the Pacific locks are the tallest of all 16, standing 33 m in height and weighing 4,232 tonnes. These gates will be used in lock head four facing the Pacific Ocean. The two gates to be installed in the Atlantic locks are 10 m wide, 29 m in height and weigh 3,319 tonnes. All gates have the same length of 57.6 m but vary in height, width and weight depending on their location in the locks. The height of the tallest gate can be compared to an 11-story building.
The construction of the gates began in October 2011 by subcontractor Cimolai in Italy. The new locks will have a total of 16 rolling gates [eight for each new lock complex]. The gates belonging to the Pacific have been transiting one by one through the current waterway on board a barge assisted by two Panama Canal tugboats. Currently, four of the eight gates have already been transferred to the construction site in the Pacific. The gates were delivered to Panama in staggered shipments of four at a time.
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