Panama Canal enlargement
It has recently been published some news about the approval by the Government of Panama of an enlargement of its maritime Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This project has had several years of preparation and the final approval required a referendum from the citizens of Panama, as stated by its Constitution. The completion of the works is planned for late 2014, one hundred years after the opening of the Canal, whose project was initiated by the French engineer and diplomat Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps.
The enlargement includes several types of performances but the most visible from the naval engineering point of view is the building of new locks at both ends of the Canal, of greater length and breadth than the current ones, to allow an increase of the maximum length and breadth of vessels which can enter these locks, that are currently 294,10 m and 32,20 m respectively. The maximum ship breadth allowable in the enlarged locks, will be ab. 53,50 m, which will increase the size of ships able to transit through the Canal. Details of the award of this locks enlargement work can be read in Ref. (1), where it is reported that the Consortium winning the competition open to select a contractor, presented an offer of 3.220 million USD.
Ref. (2) explains in great detail the characteristics of the enlarged Canal and the impact on its traffic.
Currently, the largest container vessels that can navigate this Canal have a 32,20 m breadth so reaching a capacity of about 4,000 TEUs (standard 20 feet containers). The enlarged Canal will allow up to 53,50 m. breadth container vessels, which will load about 15,000 TEUs. Unit increase in this type of vessel will be almost 4 times, but the overall real capacity of enlarged Canal has been reported as twice.
This Canal enlargement originates in the great increase of dry cargo transport, specially containers, foreseen in the two large traffics between China and the US South and East coasts and Europe respectively, within the so-called general cargo transport “4th revolution”. The first three were the introduction of the container, the intermodal ship-rail transport and the ship to ship transfer. The 4th revolución is the creation of a global network of large ports and Post-Panamax ships, that will be largely feasible through the Panama Canal enlargement.
The news of this Canal enlargement has specially pleased us because a Spanish company participates in the builders consortium which won the international competition for the implementation of this work. This consortium is called “Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) = Canal United Group” and is formed by Sacyr Vallehermoso (Spain), Somague (Portugal), Impregilo (Italy), Jan de Nul (Belgium) and Panama's Constructora Urbana (Panama).
Notice the fact that Jan de Nul is a great client of the shipyard “Construcciones Navales del Norte (CNN - La Naval of Sestao)”, that recently has delivered to him several dredgers, before and after this company purchased the Sestao factory to its previous owners, the public company IZAR. Ref.(3) reports the delivery of the last dredger “Cristobal Colón” , so far the largest worldwide suction dredger , that will be followed by the sister “Leiv Eiriksson” , whose launching took place on last 4th September. Subsequently “La Naval” will deliver to Jan de Nul another dredger of same type, but smaller size, and a “fall-pipe” vessel whose characteristics are listed in Ref.(4).
I don't know if any of the Jan de Nul Sestao–built dredgers will operate in the Panama Canal enlargement works , but it would be possible being then a source of pride for the Sestao shipyard.
The enlargement includes several types of performances but the most visible from the naval engineering point of view is the building of new locks at both ends of the Canal, of greater length and breadth than the current ones, to allow an increase of the maximum length and breadth of vessels which can enter these locks, that are currently 294,10 m and 32,20 m respectively. The maximum ship breadth allowable in the enlarged locks, will be ab. 53,50 m, which will increase the size of ships able to transit through the Canal. Details of the award of this locks enlargement work can be read in Ref. (1), where it is reported that the Consortium winning the competition open to select a contractor, presented an offer of 3.220 million USD.
Ref. (2) explains in great detail the characteristics of the enlarged Canal and the impact on its traffic.
Currently, the largest container vessels that can navigate this Canal have a 32,20 m breadth so reaching a capacity of about 4,000 TEUs (standard 20 feet containers). The enlarged Canal will allow up to 53,50 m. breadth container vessels, which will load about 15,000 TEUs. Unit increase in this type of vessel will be almost 4 times, but the overall real capacity of enlarged Canal has been reported as twice.
This Canal enlargement originates in the great increase of dry cargo transport, specially containers, foreseen in the two large traffics between China and the US South and East coasts and Europe respectively, within the so-called general cargo transport “4th revolution”. The first three were the introduction of the container, the intermodal ship-rail transport and the ship to ship transfer. The 4th revolución is the creation of a global network of large ports and Post-Panamax ships, that will be largely feasible through the Panama Canal enlargement.
The news of this Canal enlargement has specially pleased us because a Spanish company participates in the builders consortium which won the international competition for the implementation of this work. This consortium is called “Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) = Canal United Group” and is formed by Sacyr Vallehermoso (Spain), Somague (Portugal), Impregilo (Italy), Jan de Nul (Belgium) and Panama's Constructora Urbana (Panama).
Notice the fact that Jan de Nul is a great client of the shipyard “Construcciones Navales del Norte (CNN - La Naval of Sestao)”, that recently has delivered to him several dredgers, before and after this company purchased the Sestao factory to its previous owners, the public company IZAR. Ref.(3) reports the delivery of the last dredger “Cristobal Colón” , so far the largest worldwide suction dredger , that will be followed by the sister “Leiv Eiriksson” , whose launching took place on last 4th September. Subsequently “La Naval” will deliver to Jan de Nul another dredger of same type, but smaller size, and a “fall-pipe” vessel whose characteristics are listed in Ref.(4).I don't know if any of the Jan de Nul Sestao–built dredgers will operate in the Panama Canal enlargement works , but it would be possible being then a source of pride for the Sestao shipyard.
Referencias
Ref.(1) http://www.jandenul.be/newsitems/NF200907A.pdf
Ref.(2) http://www.acp.gob.pa/eng/plan/documentos/propuesta/acp-expansion-proposal.pdf
Ref.(3) http://desdegetxo.blogspot.com/2009/02/la-mayor-draga-del-mundo-pasa-bajo-el.html#links
Ref.(4) http://desdegetxo.blogspot.com/2009/04/la-naval-de-sestao-construye-un-buque.html#links
3 comments:
heey heey heey!!
Where's the Brazil in the flag counter??
xD
hugs
veHni: I see Brazil flag in 2nd column 2nd row
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