Lock gates for the widened Panama Canal has arrived. 4 gates reached the waterway’s Atlantic entrance Sunday on Cosco Ocean Shipping’s 32,800-gt heavy-lift vessel Xia Zhi Yuan 6 (built 2012). It is one of four sets of new gates that contractor consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) is to install in the new lane of wider, deeper locks for the canal.
Some of the shipments were delayed, along with canal works, amid a dispute between GUPC and the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) over alleged cost overruns in the canal’s expansion project.
Panama Canal expansion projects' rolling gates are being built by Italian subcontractor Cimolai and up to now Panama Canal expansion is 79% complete.