THE EXPANSION
All eyes on Canal expansion
he shipping industry is watching the Panama Canal expansion project as the completion date in October 2014 gets closer. ‘The [expansion] programme is advancing well on many fronts and we feel confident it will be completed on time and budget,’ says Panama Canal Authority (ACP) administrator, Alberto Aleman Zubieta. Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC), the consortium led by the Madrid-based construction company Sacyr
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Vallehermoso, with Italy’s Impregilo S.p.A, Belgium-based Jan de Nul (JDN) n.v. and the Panamanian Constructora Urbana, S.A. (CUSA) is working around the clock since it received on August 25, 2009, the notice to commence works for the $3.23bn construction of the third set of larger and wider locks.
Antonio Zaffaroni, who has been at the helm of GUPC since the bid was won, was replaced in May 2011 by Bernardo González, a Spanish engineer who previously oversaw construction of the locks on the Atlantic side of the canal. Zaffaroni has done ‘first-class work,’ says Aleman who credits the Italian engineer for having done ‘the first and most important stage of the project, including the construction of the south cofferdam on the Pacific lock site.’ The change in GUPC’s top
management was imperceptible. ‘I am convinced we will conclude on time and on budget. We are committed to delivering a quality project,’ says Gonzalez, a week after assuming his new duties. There was no time to waste since the expansion project was entering a crucial period of getting ACP’s
PANAMA MARITIME REVIEW 2011/12
acceptance of the design of the concrete that had been delayed by a series of unforeseeable circumstances. But a month later Gonzalez presented the ACP with ‘all the information so that we could accept the concrete design for GUPC to start concrete placement in the upper level chamber area,’ explains ACP vp of engineering and programme management, Jorge Quijano.
The special concrete to be placed in the locks chambers must meet ACP requirements, verified through a series of tests that will prove its durability [to 100 years], low permeability to salt water and compressive strength and shrinkage. About 4.8m cu mtr of concrete will be necessary to build both lock’s complexes. Although the design
of the concrete mix took longer than expected, the structural marine concrete design was accepted by the ACP after having completed the American Standard of Testing Material (ASTM C 1202) used to determine the level of permeability.
On July 1, 2011, GUPC [that had started in March 2011 to pour lean concrete at both lock sites to level the surface in preparation for the permanent concrete work] achieved a milestone with the casting of concrete over previously prepared industrial formworks at the bottom of the upper chamber of the future larger and wider locks on the Atlantic side. The concrete was poured into specialised industrial formwork that
Jan de Nul dredgers 15
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