Panama Canal’s Expansion 62 Percent Complete -- Occupational Health & Safety

Each of the four steel gates delivered Aug. 20, 2013, is large enough to cover half of an NFL football field.

Panama Canal's Expansion 62 Percent Complete

Four massive steel gates arrived on Aug. 20 from the Italian port of Trieste. They'll be installed in the new locks on the canal's Atlantic side.

Aug 31, 2013

The construction project to add a third traffic lane to the Panama Canal so Post-Panamax ships can transit it is now 62 percent complete, the Panama Canal Authority announced Aug. 20, when four steel gates, each large enough to cover half of an NFL football field, arrived by ship from the port of Trieste, Italy. Subcontractor Cimolai SpA built the gates. They are 57.6 meters long, 10 meters wide, and 30.19 meters high and weigh an average of 3,100 tons.These gates will be installed in the middle chamber of new locks in the canal's Atlantic side. Sixteen new rolling gates in all will be installed, eight for each new lock complex, and they're being shipped four at a time from Italy.

"This is an exciting moment for the Panama Canal -- the arrival of the new gates marks a great progress for this engineering project," Panama Canal Administrator Jorge L. Quijano said. "With the expansion, we will further reinforce our position as the maritime and logistics hub of the Americas."

The authority is an agency of the Panamanian government that manages, operates, and maintains the canal.

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