PANAMA CITY, (PNA/Xinhua) — Work on a third set of locks for Panama Canal, as part of a canal expansion project, is 70 percent complete on the Pacific side, someone close to the project said Friday.
The Pacific side project’s representative Gustavo Rivas took reporters on a tour of the site organized by Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the agency that manages the waterway.
Some 88 percent of the concrete, or 2.1 million cubic meters has been laid, the excavation work is practically finished, and a little more than 50 percent of earth needed to fill the set of locks has been placed, said Rivas.
He noted the new locks will be finished by the end of the year.
Rivas said workers are putting in preliminary installations for the floodgates, indicating work is progressing as planned.
ACP reported on July 23 the expansion project, which features new locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal, was 76.6 percent complete as of June’s end.