Maintaining the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal, an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, opened 106 years ago and reshaped world trade forever.

Since then, the waterway has seen over a million vessels transit its locks, and come to serve 144 trade routes that connect 1,700 ports across 160 countries today.

The key to the Panama Canal’s continued, smooth operations over the past 106 years includes a combination of its committed workforce and a rigorous maintenance program perfected over the past century and modernized with 21st century technology.

Both were in full force during the last month as maintenance was carried out at the Panamax Locks across two days as part of the Panama Canal’s routine efforts to ensure a safe and reliable service. 

To minimize the impact on transits, maintenance was performed simultaneously at the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks between August 25 and 26.

This work required support from 120 workers and multiple divisions, including the Locks Division, Industrial Shipyards, Engineering and Dredging.

While the West Lane of the Locks were closed during this period, transits continued on a regular basis through the Neopanamax Locks, as well as the East Lane of the Panamax Locks.

According to the fourth Panamanian Administrator of the waterway, Dr. Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, maintenance is key to ensuring that the Panama Canal has infrastructure and equipment in optimal conditions, at its 106 years of life, which were fulfilled last month.

Works on Miraflores lasted 34 hours and were carried out at Gate 122, on the lower level of the west lane of the airlock, which heads to the sea.

The Titan crane was used for this work, the only one capable of lifting the doors of the Panama Canal. Taking advantage of the works in the west lane of Miraflores locks, the defense tires located in Pedro Miguel’s locks were replaced simultaneously.

Due to the level of Lake Gatun, support from Panama Canal divers was necessary for necessary adjustments to underwater defenses.

A reminder of the Panama Canal’s modernization over the past 106 years, the waterway’s fenders were originally constructed with spring-loaded wood, though they have since been upgraded to rubber fenders with a vulcanized layer of very low friction Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene.

The fenders used today weigh 14,000 pounds each and are replaced as part of maintenance programs or when they show some level of wear as a result of their intended use.

Securing steady draft

Earlier this year, the Panama Canal implemented water saving measures after experiencing the fifth driest year at the Canal in 70 years.

Having an operational level of water and transit reliability in the second half of 2020 will be critical for the waterway as it advances its search for long-term water solutions and prepares for coronavirus-driven shifts in trade.

As a result, the Panama Canal adopted a series of bold measures earlier this year to sustain an operational level of water, including a freshwater surcharge informed by daily water level data at Gatun Lake, a profit-neutral measure that is also a standard practice across the industry.

The reservation system was also altered to increase certainty around transit schedules, which allowed for more efficient use of water resources and conservation tactics, such as cross-filling lockages, an innovative technique developed by the Canal team that saves the same amount of water used in six lockages each day by sending water between the two lanes during transits at the Panamax Locks.

Ultimately, this renewed draft reliability will help bolster the resilience of the Panama Canal route in the months ahead as the industry faces economic uncertainty in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

These efforts are just one of the over 100 maintenance projects that the Panama Canal performs annually. In fact, each year the Panama Canal invests roughly $200 million to sustain the waterway’s infrastructure and equipment, inspecting every structure at the waterway at least once, and analyzing all machinery, buildings, and lock components even more frequently. 

With each project, the team plans, announces, and carefully choreographs its moves weeks in advance. This is all to ensure that the Panama Canal’s operations remain steady in the following decades.