Panama Canal to close east lane of Miraflores Locks for 10 days

The east lane of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks will be closed from 10:00 p.m. on Monday, July 31 until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10, according to a statement from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).    The east lane of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks will be out of service for ten days, according to a statement from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
   The east lane will closed from 10:00 p.m. on Monday, July 31 until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10 for scheduled dry chamber repair work on Miter Gates 104, 105, 120 and 121, ACP said.
   Miter Gates 122 and 123 will be installed in position 120-121 during this period.
   In addition, the east lane of Gatun Locks will also be undergoing outages in early August in order to perform repair work on rising stem valves 207, 223, 228, 229 and 244.
   From 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3 until 6:00 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 4, the east lane of Gatun Locks will be out of service for bulkhead installation.
   Upon completion of the bulkhead installation, starting from 6:00 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 4, lockages on the east lane of Gatun Locks will be performed with single culvert, resulting in longer processing times. This condition will be in effect until 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10.
   Meanwhile, on Thursday, Aug. 10 from 4:00 p.m. until 11:59 p.m., the lane will be out of service for bulkhead removal, with the lane returning to normal operation at 12:00 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 11.
   Condition 2 for the Panamax locks will be in effect from Tuesday, Aug. 1 until Thursday, Aug. 10. While Condition 2 is in effect, applications for reserved transits will be received beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 29.
   “The Just-In-Time (JIT) transit slots available for supers will be reduced during this period to one for each direction, whereas the JIT slots for regular vessels transiting without restrictions will remain at one for each direction,” ACP said. “The slots available for regular vessels less than 300 feet in LOA will be limited to two, regardless of transit direction, and vessels awarded these slots will not be allowed to request a Daylight Transit. The booking slot available through the Auction Process, and the slots for Neopanamax vessels, will continue to be offered during this period.”
   The Panama Canal is used by containerships, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas carriers, bulk carriers, tankers, car carriers and passenger vehicles.
   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting’s Capacity Report, 30 fully cellular container services routinely sail through the Panama Canal.
   The expanded Panama Canal locks opened June 26, 2016. Before then, the largest containerships able to pass through the canal have had a carrying capacity of 5,000-5,100 TEUs, but now, ships carrying 13,500 to 14,000 TEUs have been able to transit the 102-year-old waterway.