Milestone at Panama Canal reached

Last week, the Administración del Canal de Panama (ACP) ‘turned the tap on’ and flooded the first section of the newly excavated lock lanes on the Pacific Side.

The excavation works close to the Centenario Bridge are being executed by the Jan De Nul Group and are just over four months ahead of schedule.

Already, 2.4 million m³ of previously blasted rock has been excavated in a record time. This represents 60 % of the total volume to be excavated. The dry excavation works will continue until end January 2012.

Jan De Nul Group mobilised its largest earthmoving equipment for the dry excavation, including 21 pieces of A40 Volvo articulated dump trucks and Hitachi EX1200 Excavators.

After the flooding of this first section, and once the water has reached the same height of the water level in the existing Panama Canal, Jan De Nul Group will start the dredging works by mobilising its large Cutter Suction Dredger ‘Marco Polo’ and Backhoe Dredger ‘Il Principe’. This is scheduled for completion in March 2012.

Jan de Nul’s contract is part of an ambitious expansion program of the Panama Canal Authority to enable Post-Panamax vessels to sail through the Canal by 2014, 100 years after the opening of the Canal.

The works entail the construction of two lock complexes, one on the Atlantic Ocean side and another on the Pacific Ocean side. This is to enable large ships to sail through the Panama Canal. After the works, the vessel capacity of the Panama Canal will be increased by about 50%.

In the Port of Cristóbal, the Jan De Nul Group is executing the deepening dredging works by order of the Panama Ports Company. The project entails the dredging of 750,000 m³ in order to enable the port to receive Post-Panamax vessels.