Panama Canal expansion sees filling of Pacific Access Channel

Workers have started filling up the Pacific Access Channel of the Panama Canal as part of the final stages of the waterway's expansion program, officials said Monday.

The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) said the channel will connect the Culebra Cut, a manmade valley that forms part of the canal, with the new third set of locks being placed to expand the 100-year-old waterway's capacity to handle larger cargo ships.

To make way for the Pacific channel, the construction consortium contracted excavated 26 million cubic meters of material, allowing the passage of the Neo Panamax ultra-large container ships once the new locks begin operating in the first months of 2016.

Some 19 million cubic meters of water will be pumped in from the canal's manmade Gatun Lake to fill the channel, which is expected to rise at a rate of half a meter to one meter a day, or take approximately 20 days.

Once filled, the channel will be at the same elevation as Gatun, 24.5 meters above sea level.

The PCA took over the administration of the canal in 1999, after the United States relinquished control of the waterway in keeping with the 1977 Torrijos Carter Treaty.

Expansion work began in 2007 and has an overall estimated cost of 5.25 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem