Authorities in Panama began on Monday filling up the Panama Canal's new Pacific locks. Water for the locks is coming from Miraflores Lake, the Panama Canal authority (ACP) said.
Three electric pumps will each move 30,000gl of water per minute and 15 diesel pumps 7,000gl each per minute.
The locks will take around five days to fill. The filling and subsequent testing of the new Pacific locks is expected to take about 90 days to complete.
The expansion project is 89.8% complete, ACP said. “Earlier this month, we reached one of the most important milestones of the program through the filling work of the Atlantic locks; now moving on to the Pacific side, we take great pride in the work done so far and are eager to bring the full program to completion,” says Panama Canal Administrator/CEO Jorge L. Quijano.
The locks are part of a multibillion-dollar expansion project, due to be completed next year. The $5.2 billion expansion will add a third set of locks doubling the capacity of the canal and allowing the transit of post-Panamax ships that can carry upwards of 14,000 TEU and stretch longer than three American football fields.
Since 2010, a consortium including Jan De Nul Group has been constructing the new lock complexes at the Panama Canal. Each complex has three lock chambers, of which each chamber has approximately the same size of Antwerp’s Berendrecht Lock.
The new locks will be named after the localities where they are built: Cocoli on the Pacific coast and Agua Clara on the Atlantic, ACP said.