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THE Panama Canal expansion will be 60.4 per cent complete with the arrival of its third set of new lock gates in August, authorities have announced.
Both entrances are now ready for bigger ships, since the deepening and widening of the Atlantic and Pacific access channels have been completed, said the statement from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
The third set of locks project registers a 50 per cent progress. The new lock complexes in the Pacific and Atlantic sides will feature three chambers, three water-saving basins per chamber, a lateral filling and emptying system and rolling gates, said the statement.
Built by Cimolai SpA in Italy, the new gates will be unloaded in the Atlantic side of the canal and rolled off the ship onto a special reception dock. Unlike the current canal, which uses miter gates, the expanded canal will have steel rolling gates, each weighing 3,300 tons.
In June, the canal received three of the 14 new tugboats that will enhance the canal's current fleet. The additional capacity will allow assisting post-panamax vessels that will be transiting the expanded canal, which will not use locomotives like the existing locks.
The expansion involves the construction of a third lane of traffic, which will double the canal's capacity.
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