Officials have discovered a crack in the Cocoli Locks of the New Panama Canal which are located on the Pacific side.
The locks’ filling-related procedures were initiated back on June 22nd. The filling of the locks, which is to take 90 days according to expectations, marks the beginning of compliance and operational trials regarding the canal expansion.
Twitter and various maritime media reports, however, have pointed out that the crack in question regarding one of locks’ sills could quite likely impact the schedule of the project.
On Saturday, experts from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) met in order to evaluate the issue.
The filling process is conducted via the use of powerful diesel and electric pumps that were designed in accordance with the specific requirements of the project. A network consisting of a total of 13 diesel pumps are responsible for pumping 7,000 gallons of water each on a minute basis, while the electric pumps account for 30,000 gallons of water each again respectively per minute. The lower chamber is thus filled up at nine-inch-per-hour rate.
The current schedule points out that the canal should be completed in April of 2016.