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There have been delays, the shipping crisis and critics from unions, but now the expanded Panama Canal will be opened, says the responsible authority ACP. HANSA gives an overview of the millenium project
Jorge L. Quijano, Panama Canal Administrator: »The dream of expansion will become[ds_preview] a reality when we inaugurate the biggest infrastructure project in the history of the Canal and the country of Panama.«

Game Changer: The ACP is confident that the expanded canal will be a game changer for the maritime industry. In fact, the canal recently set a new historical tonnage record with 340.8mill. Panama Canal tons through the waterway in the 2015 fiscal year, »validating the decision to expand«, says ACP

Post-Panamax: After the expansion, transit is possible for vessels with up to 13,000/14,000TEUs

5.25 bn $: Cost of the overall programme

Finance: To procure the required financing of 2.3 bn $, the ACP signed contracts with a group of bilateral and multilateral credit institutions: Japan Bank for International Cooperation (800mill. $), European Investment Bank (500mill. $), Inter-American Development Bank (400mill. $), International Finance Corporation (300mill. $) and Corporación Andina de Fomento (300mill. $)

Third set of locks: This project is the most important component of the expansion program. It entails the construction of the two new lock complexes in the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the Panama Canal, creating a third lane of traffic for bigger ships. It has a total fixed cost of 3.2 bn $. The gates cost 547.7mill. $ (including transportation). Lock chambers will be 427m long by 55m wide, and 18.3m deep. The construction of the new locks includes the use of reinforced steel, a technology which did not exist during the construction of the current Panama Canal. Completing both new lock complexes required a total of 4.4mill. m3 of concrete.

Pacific Access Channel: Work to expand the Panama Canal officially began in September 2007 with dry-excavation work for the creation of the Pacific Access Channel that will link the third set of locks on the Pacific side to Culebra Cut. The work calls for the excavation of some 50mill. m3 of material. A crucial part of this project involves the construction of a dam known as Borinquen 1E. The dam is located west of Pedro Miguel Locks. It measures 2.3 km in length and will allow the operation of the new channel 9m above the existing level. Dry-excavation activities in this area have called for the clearing of 461 hectares contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) left behind by the US military during its deployment in Panama Canal areas. Flooding of the channel began in September 2015. The channel reached the level of Gatun Lake in November 2015, and due to requirements it was filled to its maximum level of 27.19m.

Dredging at Pacific Entrance: This contract was awarded to Belgian company Dredging International on April 1, 2008. The work consisted of widening the navigation channel on the Pacific entrance to a minimum of 225m and deepening to 15.5m and partial construction of the south access to the Pacific locks. A total of 8.7mill. m3 of underwater material were dredged using high-tech equipment like dredges »D’Artagnan«, »Vlaanderen XIX« and »Lange Wapper«. The contract was completed on 31 July 2013

Dredging at Atlantic entrance: This contract was awarded to Jan de Nul in September, 2009. Dredging of the 13.8km area included widening of the existing Atlantic entrance navigation channel from 198m to a minimum of 225m as well as the north access channel to the new Atlantic locks to a minimum of 218m. An option for additional dredging up to 16.1m was executed, which represented an extra 2.3mill. m3 of material. The contractor deployed several dredges simultaneously along the area, including hopper dredge »Fillipo Bruneleschi« and cutter-suction dredges »Hondius« and »Marco Polo«. The work, completed in April of this year, included dredging and dry excavation of nearly 17.9mill. m3 of material.

Dredging of Gatun and Culebra Cut: This project consists of the removal of some 30mill. m3 of material to deepen and widen the navigational channels in Gatun Lake and to deepen the navigation channel in Culebra Cut. Work in the Cut was completed at the end of 2012. Most of the dredging work in Gatun Lake was being conducted by personnel and equipment of the Canal Dredging Division, with the support of the dredge »Cornelius«, rented to Boskalis. The remainder of the work was awarded to contractors Jan De Nul n.v., which dredged the north entrance to the new Pacific Access Channel (completed in November 2012) and Dredging International S.A., was responsible for dredging the reaches along the north end of the Gatun Lake navigation channel (completed in March 2012). Rising Gatun Lake’s maximum operating levels: This project consists of raising the maximum operating level of Gatun Lake from 26.7 to 27.1m, to improve the Canal’s water supply. The project will enable additional water storage capacity for Gatun Lake by nearly 200mill. m3, which will allow for approximately 1,100 additional transits every year. Dredging works at Gatun Lake were completed on 31 January 2015

Gates: Each gate will open and close in four and no more than five minutes. The gates for the Pacific site were shipped from the staging area on the Atlantic side in July 2014, in preparation for their insertion in the recesses. On 15 December 2014 the insertion phase of the first gates began at the Agua Clara Locks and concluded on 1 April 2015. At the Pacific site, this activity began on 19 January 2015 and concluded on 28 April 2015. The contractor installed all valves and continue working on machinery buildings from where both sites will be operated. Chambers were flooded to run operating tests on gates. Agua Clara Locks gate number eight was the first to be tested, continuing with the other seven, and then with Pacific lock gates. A total of 272,000m3 of material was removed during dry-excavation works.