PERI teamwork forms the construction project of the century

04.05.2011 | Lock installations Panama Canal, Panama

The expansion of the Panama Canal is the largest construction site in the world and up to the completion in 2014, will cost around five billion US dollars. Centrepieces of this monumental project are the two enormous lock installations at the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. For their realisation, PERI is planning and supplying the formwork and scaffolding systems. With an order value of 24 million US dollars, this is the largest individual contract in the company´s 40-year history.

An international team of engineers from the PERI subsidiaries in Spain, Panama and Italy as well as company headquarters in Weissenhorn/Germany, convinced the consortium of building contractors through an ideal combination of formwork expertise, efficiency and ability to deliver along with innovative system equipment. This therefore involves the use of VARIO girder wall formwork and TRIO panel formwork for forming the massive structural elements. As climbing scaffold, the new SCS system (SCS = Single-Sided Climbing System) will be used, a further development of the successful SKS climbing technology.

PERI Spain and the PERI subsidiary in Panama – founded in 2008 – are responsible for formwork planning, logistics and on-site assistance, competently supported by PERI headquarters in Weissenhorn. Currently, three 40-foot containers are leaving one of the PERI logistics and production facilities on a daily basis heading for Central America. This means that by the end of June, over 300 containers filled with formwork and scaffolding materials will have been delivered which will provide corresponding time savings and cost advantages during the construction of the massive reinforced concrete components.

Increase in capacity
The goal of the gigantic construction measures is to double the capacity of the world´s most important waterway, exactly one hundred years after the first passage in August 1914. After completion of the new lock installations – Gatun on the Atlantic in the north and Miraflores on the Pacific in the south – so-called Post Panamax container ships will then be able to also use the 80 km long channel. These vessels are up to 366 m long and 49 m broad which means they can be loaded with over 10,000 containers.

Two huge lock installations
Both locks each have a length of 1.5 km and feature very unusual dimensions. By means of three lock chambers which are positioned one behind the other, ships overcome a 26 m height difference, controlled by four lock gates. A new access channel on the Pacific side and nine enormous water-saving basins per set positioned parallel to the locks are further components of the two reinforced concrete water engineering structures. The Spanish contractor Sacyr Vallehermoso, Impregilo from Italy, Jan de Nul from Belgien and Panama-based Constructora Urbana are responsible for the construction. Over a period of three years, a total of 4,000,000 m³ concrete and 340,000 t of steel will be required which includes an area of around 2,000,000 m² that has to be formed.

Contractor:
Grupo Unidos Por el Canal, SA (GUPC) Joint Venture:
Sacyr Vallehermoso, Impregilo, Jan De Nul and Constructora Urbana

PERI was founded in 1969 and is today the leading provider of formwork and scaffolding systems. Along with the headquarters in Weissenhorn, Germany, the company has 48 international subsidiaries and 100 stock yards around the world. The company has over 5500 employees. 2010 revenues was 825 million Euros.

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This release was published on openPR.