Four More Gates Delivered for Panama Canal's Expansion
The third shipment of gates for new locks have arrived at the Atlantic entrance of the waterway, the Panama Canal Authority announced Sept. 8.
The third of four shipments of gates for new locks being constructed for the Panama Canal Expansion project arrived Sept. 7 at the Atlantic entrance of the canal. Four gates arrived on board the Post-Panamax vessel Xia Zhi Yuan 6, having made the trip from Trieste, Italy. They will be unloaded onto a special temporary dock, according to the Panama Canal Authority's announcement.
These four will be installed in the new locks at the Pacific side of the canal. Two of them are 189 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 104 feet high and weigh 4,163 tons apiece; they are the heaviest of the 16 rolling gates that will be used in the expanded canal. The smaller ones weigh 2,867 tons each.
The final shipment is expected to arrive in January 2015.
The expansion project is 79 percent complete. It involves the construction of a third lane of traffic allowing the passage of bigger vessels, which will double the canal's capacity, according to the authority.