In Panama, approximately 6.3 million cubic yards of concrete is being transformed into the new Pacific and Atlantic lock systems that will provide passage for new, larger megaships through the Panama Canal. The installation of the gates is now underway.

Tetra Tech provided design services for the Post-Panamax Third Set of Locks Expansion project, which will open up the Panama Canal to service ships as large as 1,300 feet long and 160 feet wide, with a container capacity of 12,000. The largest ships that pass through the canal today can carry only 4,500 containers. The third set of locks is the largest component of the expansion, which will create new trade routes worldwide, allowing huge freighters from Asia a direct path into the Gulf of Mexico and points east.

The Tetra Tech team is responsible for the design of all project valves and bulkheads that regulate gravity flow from Lake Gatun to the oceans; water saving basin structures that enable emptying and filling operations; wing wall inlets and outlets; and all the approach structures that align and stage ships as they enter or exit the locks. Tetra Tech is also providing engineering assistance and quality assurance services through the end of construction. These elements are essential to move these massive ships from ocean to ocean. The expansion includes two lock complexes, one each on the canal’s Atlantic and Pacific sides.

Read the article in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.

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