Testing of the reinforcements in sill #3 of the Cocolí locks within the Third Set of Locks Project of the Panama Canal has been successfully completed by the project’s contractor Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said.
GUPC technical personnel, the designers and ACP specialists monitored the testing process which consisted of gradually raising the water behind the lock gate to the level in which the seepage was first detected in the sill #3 last August.
The seepage found in the concrete sill between the lower and middle chamber of the Panama Canal’s expanded Pacific Locks was the result of insufficient steel reinforcement in the area which was subjected to stress from extreme condition testing, according to GUPC’s findings.
The work on the repairs was completed early this month .
ACP also said that the testing was inspected by a team of independent experts, professors and structural engineers from the Technological University of Panama (UTP), all of whom expressed satisfaction with the final results.
Following the completion of this work, GUPC will proceed to test the electromechanical components necessary for the Expanded Canal to operate.
Less than four percent remains to complete the overall project, which is expected to be inaugurated in the second quarter of 2016.
The expanded canal was last scheduled to open in April, however the date was pushed due to repairs.