Panama Canal receives final lock gates for expansion project

All 16 gates for the massive infrastructure project have been delivered.    The construction consortium expanding the Panama Canal for larger vessels on Wednesday received the final shipment of gates for the new set of locks, the Panama Canal Authority said.
   All 16 rolling gates that will contain water in the lock chambers are now in the country. They were made in Italy and shipped from the Port of Trieste. The final four gates arrived at a temporary dock on the Atlantic side of the isthmus on board a post-Panamax vessel owned by COSCO Ocean Shipping. Previous shipments were moved by a special-purpose vessel.
   The Panama Canal Authority in late February settled a two-month contract dispute with the international consortium in charge of building the third set of locks. Construction work slowed considerably during the impasse over cost overruns, pushing the opening of the wider lane to at least late in the first quarter of 2016. Under the agreement, contractor GUPC was required to deliver the remaining 12 lock gates in stages by December of this year. 
   The first shipment of four gates arrived in Panama in August 2013.
   The final shipment included two gates to be used in the Atlantic entrance and two in the Pacific. The two Pacific-side gates are the tallest of the bunch, standing 33 meters and weighing 4,232 tons. The gates are about as tall as an 11-story building. All gates have the same length, but vary in height, width and weight depending on their location in the lock system. 
   Gates for the Pacific facility are transported through the canal on barges assisted by two tugboats. 
   Canal Authority officials now anticipate opening the new set of locks to commercial traffic in the first quarter of 2016. The delays and other cost overruns have pushed the price tag beyond $6 billion.
   The expansion is expected to modify global trade patterns and reduce transit times, as larger container, bulk, tanker and LNG vessels are able to take advantage of the maritime shortcut. Experts say the expanded canal will also enable greater trade between South America and Asia, as well as between opposite coasts of North and South America, with Panama serving as a hub for transferring cargo between smaller, regional vessels and the giant megaships working deep-sea trunk routes.