The expansion project of the Panama Canal is 30% complete, including dredging, dry excavation, design and construction of new locks. This work was done by a Belgian company - Jan De Nul Group, which won the contract in August of 2010 for $54.5 million.
Yesterday, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) commenced the filling of the Pacific access channel to connect the new Post-PANAMAX locks with the Gaillard Cut.
It will take about three days to fill the area using 1.4 million cubic meters of water from Gatun Lake according to Jorge Luis Quijano, Executive Vice President Engineering and Program Management of the ACP.
This entry to the Pacific access channel is measuring 1.6 km long, 218 meters wide and its depth of excavation is to 9.14 meters above sea level. The rest of the Pacific access channel, with a total length of 6.1 kilometers, will be filled during 2013 once it has completed the excavation of 26 million cubic meters and the construction of earth and rock dam of 2.3 km that separates the Miraflores Lake.
October 20, 2011
La Prensa, Summary by Julitte Passer
You can see the process on the video by Jan de Nul - "Dredging the new Panama Canal" at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S5Z807Ws4c
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