The New and Improved - Panama Canal

New Panama Canal

The first four gates for the Panama Canal’s new, larger locks have arrived in Colon, Panama in what is being called a major milestone in the expansion of the vital waterway.

For its 100-year anniversary in 2014, the Panama Canal Authority is modernizing and expanding the canal between the Atlantic and Pacific. (update the opening has been moved to 2015)

Today, more than 943,042 vessels have passed through the Panama Canal since its opening. It acts as benchmark to the world's economic health -- bustling with freighters carrying grain, petroleum and coal during high times and slowing down when global markets lag. The canal shortened the trip between the East and West coasts of the United States by 8,000 nautical miles, allowing ships to avoid the dangerous, expensive trip around South America's Cape Horn.


The expansion of the Panama Canal involves the construction of a third set of gates that will allow for the passage of Post-Panamax vessels, which will double the Canal’s capacity. 

Built by subcontractor Cimolai SpA, the first four gates are 57.6 m long, 10 m wide and 30.19 m high, and weigh an average of 3,100 tons. The gates will be unloaded onto a temporary dock and eventually transported to their final position in the middle chamber of the new Atlantic side locks using self-propelled motorized wheel transporters (SPMTs). Source

The new locks will have a total of 16 rolling gates (eight for each new lock complex), unlike the current canal which uses miter gates. They will allow a ship with a 160-foot beam to pass with ease. The current canal can only accommodate ships that are no more than 106 feet wide and 965-feet long with a draft -- or depth -- of 39 1/2 feet, instead of the 50 feet or so required by post-Panamax vessels. Some of the largest ships in this category -- with containers stacked seven deep on their decks -- look like they're barely able to squeeze through today's locks.

The post-Panamax behemoths can stretch the length of three football fields and will carry as many as 13,000 containers as they make the eight-to-10-hour journey through the canal. In terms of tonnage, they're three times as heavy as current Panama Canal ships, hence the need for deeper channels and wider locks.

The remaining 12 gates will be shipped four at a time from Italy and are expected by the end of 2014.

Authorities with the Panama Canal said that the new gates arrived Tuesday morning on board the semi-submersible heavy lift vessel, STX Sun Rise from the port of Trieste, Italy.

The expansion project is currently 62 percent complete, according to figures released by the Panama Canal Authority.

Since the expansion began, some 25,000 people, about 90% of them Panamanian, have worked on various phases of the project. There have been 4 deaths.

T imelapses In new locks, Panama Canal from Waldo Chan on Vimeo.