Related Links: Video of Panama Canal gates arriving ACP reports on expansion progress Crews this month wheeled ashore the first four of sixteen gates—each the size of a 10-story building—for the Panama Canal’s new locks, a major milestone for the $5.2-billion project. Mounted on self-propelled motorized wheel transporters, each of the 3,100-ton gates was off-loaded onto a temporary dock on the Atlantic side of the waterway, not far from the new locks that will be their permanent home.The gates, costing about $548 million to fabricate and install, are the centerpiece of the enormous third set of locks that is being
French firm Vinci Construction Grands Projets has won a contract to construct a $366-million cable-stayed bridge that will span the Panama Canal on the historic waterway's Atlantic entrance.
Related Links: Dramatic Digs Mark Panama Canal Expansion Progress A Shaky History in Panama Meeting the quality level called for in the Panama Canal's new locks while producing the massive volume of concrete required to finish the job by the expected fall 2014 completion date has called for extreme equipment solutions. For each primary process—batching, conveying and placing—the material is tightly controlled.The sheer volume of concrete—more than five million cubic meters—has to be built to meet the structures' projected century-long life span. As a result, the quality standards for the concrete are extremely high. The entire lock worksites on the
The quality standards set for the locks for the Panama Canal's Third Lane Expansion are enormously high, partly due to seismic risk. While the danger posed by earthquakes is perceived to be low, studies by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) found evidence of an active fault running next to the new locks on the Pacific side of the canal.
The $3.25-billion effort to build massive new locks on both entrances of the Panama Canal has been delayed by six months beyond the previously announced schedule, said officials with the Panama Canal Authority, the agency that oversees the canal.The international consortium handling the lock's construction, Grupos Unidos por El Canal, notified the authority—known by its Spanish-language acronym, ACP — of the new altered schedule on April 3.The delay follows a weeklong work stoppage in January organized by SUNTRACS, one of Panama's largest construction labor unions. The walkout, which only affected workers for Grupo Unidos por el Canal, ended when the
Three of Brazil’s largest airports were privatized earlier this month in a public auction that netted $14.3 billion—almost three and a half times the minimum set by the government for the trio of contracts.
The development of big-ticket hydroelectric projects in Peru seems to be on a collision course with both Brazilian financial backers and indigenous groups, who object to being displaced and having their land despoiled.
A six-day strike at the Panama Canal's $5.2-billion Third-Lane Expansion has ended with the project consortium and workers agreeing to a 13% wage hike. The new hourly rates are reportedly $3.34 and $3.96 per hour for skilled labor, up from the previous $2.90 per hour.
