Gate

[Doc Vernon]

This is a Pic of one of the Eight large Pacific Side Gates that are being put into place on the extended Panama Canal some project !
Cheers




Crowley will transport all eight of the gates involved in the Pacific side lock expansion.
The 455 4 was contracted by Sarens, a Belgium-based heavy lift company, to transport the gates from Cristóbal, a port on the Atlantic side of the Canal, to a purpose-built receiving on the canal’s Pacific side. The 105-foot wide barge, currently the largest capable of transiting the Canal, was towed by Panama Canal Authority (ACP) tugs and made the transit in only one day.
The first gate to make the trip is the smallest, standing 22 meters tall and weighing 2,300 tons.
"Crowley provided Sarens the barge to complete this important step in the historical expansion of the Panama Canal," said John Ara, vice president Crowley solutions group. "As family-owned, privately-held companies, both keenly focused on safety, integrity and high performance, working together proved to be a successful partnership for a project that the entire world is literally watching."
Barge 455 4 is one in a series of eight high deck strength barges in Crowley’s fleet able to handle uniform loads up to 4,200 pounds per square foot. In cooperation with Sarens and the Panama Canal Authority (PCA), the barge is scheduled to transport another gate this month followed by three more in both November and December.
Prior to the move, Jensen Maritime, Crowley’s Seattle-based marine engineering and naval architecture firm, worked with Sarens to perform a professional peer review of Sarens’ strength and stability calculations related to the barge and voyage.
The Canal expansion project involves widening the channel and adding a third set of locks, one set on the Pacific and the other on the Atlantic side. The new locks require a total of 16 rolling gates, eight for each side. The gates have been arriving in groups of four from Italy since August 2013.

[Captain Kong]

There was a time, long ago, when Britain was Great, we could have made those gates and shipped them over, but now ever since Harold Wilson closed down British Industries, Italy now builds them and Big cruise ships.
The only thing we can make today is Japanese cars. The Mighty has fallen.
Cheers
Brian

[happy daze john in oz]

Brian, it is ahppening in many countries now. Here in Oz no more cars after 2017 very little manufacturing here now. Just farm and a mine as the main source of work.

[Tony Morcom]

Courtesy of our friends @gCaptain

BY MIKE SCHULER ON DECEMBER 16, 2014





The first of the new lock gates for the expanded Panama Canal are being installed approximately one year ahead of the Third Set of Locks’ anticipated opening and about 7 years after the project began.
The Panama Canal Authority announced Monday that the installation of the new gates began on Monday on the Atlantic side of the waterway. The gate being installed is located in “lock head two” of the new locks and is expected to be completed in the next couple of days. The steel gates are being moved into place using self-propelled motorized wheel transporters (SPMTs) with more than 400 wheels each.
The gate currently being installed measures 10 meters wide by 30.19 meters in height and weighs 3,285 tons.

In total, the new locks will have 16 rolling gates, eight in the Pacific side and eight in the Atlantic side. Operation of the Third Set of Locks is expected to begin in January 2016, at least as according to the current timeline.
Photos courtesy Panama Canal Authority

[Captain Kong]

Here is a view of the new locks 1, from the Atlantic side near Gatun Locks from the lake. and 2 at the Pacific end by the Mira Flores Locks,. There is still a dam around the construction. I took these photos last January.

Cheers
Brian

[Ron Kendall]

What will happen to the Panama Canal, when the Nicaraguan Grand Canal opens in a few years time? work starts this month,part financed by Russia, the US wont like that!

[Captain Kong]

I think China is also throwing a few bob as well.
Cheers
Brian

[Ivan Cloherty]

I think China is also throwing a few bob as well.
Cheers
Brian

From the financial reports I've read, China is financing the whole thing, Russia is not involved, as China sees it as away to gaining a financial and ultimately a military presence there (Central America) when it sends in troops to guard its interests. I wrote a long article about this on site about a year ago. Things may have changed and as always I stand to be corrected. China wants its presence felt in the Americas and I don't think by any stretch of the imagination that any embargo by the USA on Chinese goods or services will have the same effect it did on Cuba and Russia

[Lou Barron]

Will they still have the donkeys ???

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI Lou.
They will always have the donkey's mate, that's the workers.
Cheers for Xmas Lou
Des