Panama Canal Expansion a Mega-Project of Enormous Proportions by S. Scot Litke with Eberhard Heinzeman, GSS/Titan, and Steven Kenis, Jan de Nul

One of the world’s most ambitious and important construction projects in recent history is the $5.2 billion dollar expansion of the Panama Canal. There may have been projects whose total cost exceeded those that will ultimately be realized by the Panama Canal Expansion, but the impact as it relates to international commerce ranks right up there with the most important ever undertaken.

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The Panama Canal is a 51 mile long channel in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean via the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific. The idea of such a conduit actually goes back many centuries. The actual construction commenced in 1880 and was completed in 1914. The growth in ship traffic since 1914 and the present is astronomical rising from approximately 1,000 to close to 15,000 today. Named by the American Society of Engineers (ASCE) as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Canal has lived up to this august reputation in terms of the engineering involved and ultimately as it relates to the enormous commercial value of goods that have made their way through the waterway.

This article is not meant to be an historical chronicle of all that has gone into the Canal over the years as doing so would take many more pages than this publication offers. Interested parties can find multiple sources for a more thorough geographic, economic, and engineering oriented treatment of the subject.

As it turns out, the only U.S. Specialty Subcontractor to work on the expansion project to date is ADSC Contractor Member firm, Richard Goettle, Cincinnati, Ohio. Their project involved the construction of driven sheet pile cofferdams and has been widely reported in industry publications, and therefore will not be repeated here. As it relates to foundations and anchored geo-support systems, that work has been performed by international companies, most of which are self-performing general contractors, however much of the equipment that is being utilized on the project has been supplied by ADSC manufacturers and suppliers.

ADSC Associate Member, Eberhard Heinzeman, GSS/Titan, Central America, has provided us with a brief overview of the expansion project now underway in which ADSC Associate Member equipment is being used.

The program consists of the construction of two new sets of locks - one on the Pacific and one on the Atlantic side of the Canal. Each lock will have three chambers and each chamber will have three water reutilization basins.

The program also entails the widening and deepening of existing navigational channels in Gatun Lake and the deepening of Culebra Cut.

In order to open a new 6.1 km-long access channel to connect the Pacific locks and the Culebra Cut, four dry excavation projects are being executed.

Expansion Program Components

Post-Panamax Locks

Construction of new Post-Panamax locks on the Pacific and Atlantic sides. The new lock complexes will have three chambers each with water-saving basins, a lateral filling and emptying system and rolling gates.

Pacific Access Channel

Excavation of the new Pacific Post-Panamax locks north access

channel. The project requires the dry excavation of approximately 49 million cubic meters of material along 6.1 kilometers. Executed in four different phases (PACs 1 – 4).

Improvements to Navigational Channels

Involves dredging of the existing navigation channels to enable the safe navigation of Post-Panamax vessels through the expanded Canal.

Improvements to Water Supply

Calls for an increase of Gatun Lake’s maximum operating level by 45 centimeters to improve Canal water supply and draft dependability.

Dredging of the Canal Atlantic Entrance

On September 28, 2009, the ACP awarded the contract for the dredging of the Atlantic entrance to the Canal to Belgian company Jan de Nul n.v.

Dry Excavation of the new Gatun locks

A joint venture of Jan de Nul and CUSA a Panamanian Contractor is performing the dry excavation of the Gatun Locks including the water reutilization basins. The excavation was started in the 1930’s by the Corps of Engineers but then abandoned due to lack of funds with the US entering WWII. 

The Gatun formation is a weak sedimentary rock which consists of marly, tuffaceous  highly fossiliferous sediments. It is

stabilized with up to 8.25 meter long epoxy coated nails with a design life of 100 years. The permanent nails are SAS bars, Jan de Nul is using an excavator mounted TEI HEM550

to reach the high drill positions along the excavation and uses an Obermann grout pump for all injection applications.

Design and Construction of the Third Set of Locks

This is the largest and most complex project under the Expansion Program. At a cost of $3.2 billion, the contract was awarded on July 15, 2009 to Grupo Unidos por el Canal, a consortium formed by companies Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A. of Spain; Impregilo SpA of Italy; Jan de Nul n.v. of Belgium; and Constructora Urbana, S.A. of Panama. The contractor formally began the works on August 25, 2009. The project involves the construction of two mirror sets of locks, one on the Pacific and the other on the Atlantic, each with a total of nine water-saving basins and a redundant system of eight rolling gates per lock. The designs for the Third Set of Locks, as well as the fabrication of its different components, are being developed in different parts of the world. To build the new locks, the contractor installed its own industrial parks where the concrete that will shape the massive structures will be mixed. The rock dug out from the excavation area on the Pacific side, known as basalt, will be crushed and used as aggregate and sand for the mix.

We will provide periodic updates as the project progresses. The completion date will be a moving target as a project of this magnitude, with as many components as this one, will no doubt experience revised time tables for many of the phases. Once complete, the functional capability of the Canal will have increased dramatically.