PANAMA CITY, Panama, December 15, 2014 – The installation of the gates for the new locks of the Panama Canal successfully began today on the Atlantic side of the waterway.“This is a very important milestone for the Expansion Program,” said Panama Canal Administrator Jorge L. Quijano. “We see how the new locks are rapidly taking shape as we move towards the successful completion of the project.”

The gate will be located in lock head two in the new locks on the Atlantic side. The installation of the gate began early in the morning and is expected to be completed in the next couple of days. The steel gates are moved using self-propelled motorized wheel transporters (SPMTs) with more than 400 wheels each.
The gate currently being installed is 10 meters wide, 30.19 in height and weighs 3,285 tons. In total, the new locks will have 16 rolling gates, eight in the Pacific and eight in the Atlantic.

Overall, the Panama Canal Expansion Program is 83 percent complete.

About the Panama Canal Authority (ACP)
The ACP is the autonomous agency of the Government of Panama in charge of managing, operating and maintaining the Panama Canal. The operation of the ACP is based on its organic law and the regulations approved by its Board of Directors. For more information, please refer to the ACP’s website: http://www.pancanal.com/. You can also follow us on Twitter @thepanamacanal.