Original news was published on 18 June, 2014
The second shipment of four rolling gates for the Third Set of Locks at the Panama Canal have arrived.
“This is another milestone as it completes half of the 16 gates that will be used in the new locks,” Jorge Luis Quijano, the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, said in a statement.
The voyage began about a month ago from the Port of Trieste in Italy. STX Sun Rise, a 4,173-deadweight-ton semi-submersible vessel, carried the heavy gates. The gates were designed in two sizes, based on their their final positions in the lock chambers.
The taller gates were fabricated for lock head number 3 in the middle chamber of the Pacific locks, the Panama Canal Authority said. Each is 57.6 meters long, 10 meters thick and 31.9 meters tall and weighs about 3,900 tons. The shorter ones will be located in lock head 1 in the Atlantic site’s upper chamber, adjacent to the lake. They are 57.6 meters long, 8 meters thick and 22.3 meters tall and weigh about 2,300 tons.
The two gates destined for the Atlantic complex will remain in the staging area until the time of their installation and the other two will be transferred to the Pacific site once the installation of the concrete supports are completed in the dock built for their unloading.
The first shipment of rolling gates arrived in Panama on August 20, 2013. The third shipment is scheduled to arrive in October of this year.
*NEWS SOURCE
