A Man, a Plan, a Canal, Panama

Meeting with President of the Panama Canal Commission

Three new locks on the Atlantic side

Massive lock gate

Driving along the bottom of the new locks

Panama City skyline

February 12, 2015

A Man, a Plan, a Canal, Panama

Last Thursday we had a very interesting trip to visit the construction site for the new canal being built in Panama. It is actually the third canal, as the existing canals consists of two sets of three locks at each of the Atlantic and Pacific ends.

Through connections of the Blue Planet Odyssey organizer, Jimmy Cornel, we were able to get right into the construction area, and our bus drove along the bottom of the three locks on the Atlantic side.

The new canal was supposed to open in 2014, 100 years after the opening of the original canal, however it is approximately one year behind schedule due to problems incurred by one of the contractors. The new canal is designed to accommodate boats that are 40% longer and 60% wider than the existing canals. The primary market will be large LNG tankers.  Unlike the old canals, the new one has three water saving basins associated with each of the locks, which will result in a 60% fresh water saving for each boat locking through. This will mean that the amount of water used will be the same as for the existing canals.  One of the requirements in the construction contract was that room had to be left for the eventual construction of a fourth canal. The fresh water comes from Gatun Lake, a 126 square mile lake that joins the locks at each end of the lake. Gatun Lake sits 28 meters above sea level, so each of the three locks at each end raises or lowers boat 8/9 meters each. When the water saving basins are being used it will take 17 minutes to fill or empty each lock. In times of excess water when the basins will not be used it will take only 10 minutes. Each lock will use approximately 200,000 cubic meters of water.

The locks on the Pacific side sit over a number of earthquake faults so they need to be stronger than those on the Atlantic side, and contain a lot more steel.

When travelling along the bottom of the locks we passed several of the lock gates that are waiting to be installed in recesses along the canal walls. Each lock gate weights 4,000 tons so moving them is an engineering feet in itself.

The canals, which are owned by the people of Panama, contribute US$ 1 billion net to Panama each year. Given these economics, funding for the new canal construction was easily obtained at low rates from the international investment community. Large boats transiting the canal pay between a quarter and a half million dollars in fees!

After our tour we visited Panama City spending time in the old part of town dating back several hundred years. Lots of churches and restaurants with interesting Spanish architecture. The newer part of the city has a very modern looking skyline, with some quite futuristic high rise buildings.

While in Panama City we visited the headquarters of the Panama Canal Commission and spent an hour meeting with the President of the Commission, a very interesting man who was most gracious in receiving us and answering our questions.

The Panamanians are currently celebrating Carnival so it is difficult to get things done. Each of the Blue Planet Odyssey boats is required to have a pilot on board, and since many of the pilots are off for Carnival we were unable to all lock through on the same day. Six boats left yesterday for a two day transit of the canal, and we, and four other boats, have to wait until Monday when those pilots are back before we can lock through. We have been advised to be out in the “Flats” in front of the first set of locks by 4:30pm to await our pilot, and should be going through the three Gatun Locks within an hour I would think. You may be able to see us go through on the Gatun Locks webcam. The group that left yesterday were seen on the Miraflores Locks webcam around 2:00pm this afternoon. (We are in the same time zone as Toronto!) I imagine our timing would be similar. If you wish to check us out in the locks go to Pancanal.com/eng website, click on "Multimedia" at the top, and choose either the Gatun Locks - High Resolution site or the Miraflores - High Resolution site depending on what day you are viewing.

While we had been anticipating a flying start to our trip to the Galapagos, because of Carnival the Customs/Immigration offices on the Atlantic side are not open and we will have to anchor on the Pacific side and deal with those formalities there.