Construction—North America—Panama—Structural Repair Solutions
Rehabilitation of the Panama Canal:
DYWIDAG Bar Tendons stabilize new Lock Gates
In 2007, the comprehensive expansion of the 80km long Panama Canal that was opened in 1914 began. Thanks to the construction
of a third, larger lock complex and a third waterway, the capacity of the canal that is used by 13,000 to 14,000 ships per year will be
tripled. When the expansion is completed, ships with up to 12,000 containers on board will be able to use the navigation channel –
currently, the canal only accommodates ships with a maximum of 4,500 containers.
For the new locks on the Atlantic and Pacific
sides, a total of 4.4 million m³ of concrete
had to be poured. During the filling of the lock
chamber for testing purposes in August 2015
and within the scope of some routine load
tests, several cracks appeared at the new
Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side.
The leaks appeared in the concrete sill of
the inner bulkhead 3 that divides the middle
152
chamber from the lower chamber of the
Cocoli Lock Complex. The water filtered
through across the width of the chamber near
the top of the sill just below the rolling gate.
The reason for the leak was the fact that not
all of the acting stresses had been considered
in the original design so that, in some places,
the steel reinforcement was insufficient to
resist the water pressure.
As a precaution, the General Contractor
decided to also reinforce the three sills of the
Agua Clara Lock Complex on the Atlantic
side in addition to the three sills that divide
the chambers in the Cocoli Lock Complex
on the Pacific Side using bar tendons.
For rehabilitation, the cracks in the sill of
gate No. 3 were sealed using resin.