It was a big week for the Panama Canal Expansion, one of the biggest engineering and supply chain projects happening anywhere.
The first set of gates for the Canal's new locks arrived from the Port of Trieste.
Built by Cimolai SpA, each gate is 189 feet long, 33 feet wide and 99 feet high; and, weighs an average of 3,100 tons.
Here is a link to a real cool video -- only a minute, thirty seconds in length -- on the first set’s arrival.
The expanded Panama Canal will require a total of 16 such gates.
The gates are being shipped four at a time from Italy.
Currently, the expansion is about 62 percent complete, according to the Panama Canal Authority.
Scheduled for completion in mid-2015, the project involves the construction of a third lane of traffic to accommodate the passage of Post-Panamax vessels.
