Dutch modular ferry for Panama

The project of the Panama Canal Authority, the government agency responsible for operating, maintaining, managing, preserving and modernising the canal, to expand the Panama Canal is well underway. The aim of the expansion is the enlarging of the Panama Canal’s capacity. Building a new, third bridge over the canal, working name Atlantic Bridge, is one of the activities and its construction has a Dutch touch, as the companies Combifloat, Groeneveldt Marine Construction and Saltwater Engineering are involved as well.

French VINCI Construction Grands Projets, designer and builder of major civil engineering structures, was awarded the contract worth € 366 million to build the Atlantic Bridge, which will span the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, by the Panama Canal Authority in November 2012 and started the building process, which will take three and a half years to complete, in January 2013. The bridge will be located three kilometres north of the Panama Gatun locks, near the city of Colon and will be the longest cable-stayed concrete bridge of 1,050 metres long carrying two lines of traffic in each direction with a central span of 530 metres and pylons with a height of 212.5 metres. It will have a vertical clearance of 75 metres above the canal. The bridge will be the third lane expansion and serve as the only road connection across the waterway on the north side of the Isthmus. It will notably allow passage of the largest container ships (Post-Panamax), in accordance with the canal expansion programme. It will also allow vehicles to cross the Panama Canal on the Atlantic side, whether or not the locks are in operation.

To avoid disrupting navigation in the canal, it is not possible for the work to be carried out in the waterway itself, which means the deck will have to be cast in place. The contract also includes construction of access viaducts on either side of the bridge with a total length of two kilometres, together with connections to the existing road network. VINCI has a concrete factory on the one side of the canal to build the pylons, but on the other side pylons need to be built as well. To transport all the neccesary materials to the other side, the trucks needed to make quite a long detour. Therefore they decided to contact Combifloat from Rotterdam for a solution.

Martijn van den Driest, procurement coordinator at Combifloat, comments: ”Just before the summer of 2013 the initial contact with VINCI was established. We sat around the table for another project, and we also received the question if we had a quick solution for transporting concrete mixers over the Panama Canal. We thought about this request and in collaboration with Papendrecht-based Groeneveldt Marine Construction, who we knew from an earlier project, we made a proposal which was very much appreciated by the client.”

The proposal

The proposal was a ferry based on the Combifloat C-7 series modular pontoon system, complemented with diesel-electric propulsion, two generator containers and a bridge. The ferry, named Concepción, consists of ten modular pontoons with a total length of 42 metres and a width of twelve metres. Combifloat was responsible for the floating parts, the propulsion system, generators and bridge were organised by Groeneveldt. Saltwater Engineering, located in Papendrecht as well, did the necessary engineering as Groeneveldt’s subcontractor. Combifloat offers modular pontoons that consist of connected pontoons for various purposes, the extra addition was that the ferry needed to be self-propelled and the ferry should have a class notation to be allowed to sail on the Panama Canal. Klaas Groeneveldt, director of Groeneveldt Marine Construction, explains: ”We integrated a diesel-electric propulsion system with two generator sets in two standard 20 foot containers, the generator rooms, so to speak. Two pontoons are equipped with Ballegooijen bow thrusters of 160 kW each. Also the bridge is manufactured in a standard ten foot container.” The thrusters allow a beach landing in the shallow water banks of the Panama Canal, resulting in the necessary maximum allowable draft of the ferry of a mere 80 centimetres, maintaining excellent manoeuvrability.

All parts except the pontoons were specially engineered for this project. Bas Lokken, naval architect at Saltwater Engineering: ”On both sides of the ferry, a platform with a container is situated, that is used as the ‘engine room’ and is easily clicked onto the Combifloat modules. Another challenge for us as Saltwater Engineering was the design ofthe bow and stern of the ferry. Combifloat offers bow and stern pontoons, a proven concept for lightweight cargo, however, the installation of loading ramps and the details of the cargo resulted in a bow and stern designed by Saltwater, built by Groeneveldt, and equipped with the Combifloat coupling systems. One of the demands was that the ferry should be able to transport four concrete trucks, but also heavy crane and trailers with steel. These demands were leading in the construction of the loading ramps, to be used to let vehicles drive on and off the ferry, because of the weight and the point-concentrated load that could be caused.” Several load cases were thought out and discussed with VINCI. If the load is divided, the ferry has a deck load capacity of 150 tons, if the ferry transports a single load, about 110 tons can be handled.

The Bureau Veritas challenge

The ferry has been built according to Bureau Veritas classification rules and regulations. Lokken: ”Combifloat’s pontoons are built under classification by Germanischer Lloyd, but for this project, a self-propelled ferry with a bridge, Bureau Veritas has been chosen for the classification. Bureau Veritas had to work differently compared to other projects, as normally the approval period is first completed before the build is started. In this project, the hull was already finished and type-approved, but not as a part of a self-propelled vehicle. Type approvals were received by handing in several calculations and also all modular parts were approved.” Concepción sails under Panamanian flag, but this flag only has a few rules, all based on seagoing vessels sailing outside of Panama.

The ferry however is a non-seagoing vessel sailing within Panama and that resulted in some brain-racking. ”Our ferry was a new phenomenon for Panama, which meant that there were no set rules and regulations, thus a challenge for us”, says Lokken. ”The existing rules are mainly based on passing by the locks, but that does not apply to the ferry. Firstly we wondered if the vessel should be an inland vessel, but Panama is not familiar with inland shipping, so we decided to give the vessel a coastal notation. Saltwater and Groeneveldt made a document after having talked to Hubel Marine, the Panamanian flag’s representative in the Netherlands. The document consisted of several demands we wanted to comply with and sent it for approval to Panama. It was also used by Bureau Veritas during class approval. There were some uncertainties from the Panamanian side, but in the end, we got clarity on some discussion points, for example the fact that an anchor winch was not necessary as we are not planning to anchor in the middle of the Panama Canal and we have a spare generator set and thruster.” Groeneveldt adds: ”The best of all is that during the process you think that it is never going to be okay, but in the end, Bureau Veritas approved everything.”

Unique about the project was its short timespan. Van den Driest comments: ”Mid August 2013 it became clear that we could proceed with the project, in November 2013 we were able to do the sea trials. When the same project would have been done with a monohull, that time would have already been spent on only the engineering. Our modules were available from stock, so the hull could be quickly built and simultaneously the systems were engineered, which resulted in a very short building time.” Groeneveldt agrees: ”The short delivery time was an advantage of this project. All three parties started the project at the same time, and as a result a complete coastal vessel could be delivered in a very short time.”

Trinity

All parties were very positive about the collaboration. ”We executed the whole project as a trinity, also because the project needed to be finished in such a short timespan”, says Lokken. Van den Driest adds: ”Our collaboration was characterised by a pragmatic way of dealing with changes. A challenge was the class approval by Bureau Veritas, for them such a short project was a challenge as well, but together we were able to do a lot of work in a very short time. If in the future we will be awarded a similar project, we will not hesitate to ask Groeneveldt and Saltwater Engineering again.”

After the sea trails for class approval, Concepción was disassembled again and transported by Wagenborg on a vessel of Spliethoff to Panama in December, where it arrived just after Christmas. In the second and third week of January, Combifloat and Groeneveldt assembled the ferry. VINCI took the ferry into operation towards the end of February, where it will sail the 400 metres back and forth the Panama Canal the coming three years, in the beginning mainly during the day, but later on also during night time. Van den Driest hopes that Concepción will not be a one-off: ”We look forward to sell more of these ferries, as we can use the experience gained in this project.”

Gail van den Hanenberg