The project for the enlargement of the Panama Canal is nowadays considered one of the most important civil engineering works. The project includes the building of two new series of gates, on both the Pacific and the Atlantic side, to respond in a suitable and efficient way to the development of the maritime transportation industry. The primary objective of this impressive engineering work is to allow the passage through the gates to the biggest and the heaviest ships.
The new gates will be composed by three chambers, geared with their appropriate systems of sliding floodgate to allow to overtake the current difference in height between the Ocean and the Gatun lake. The realisation of these new gates will require the support of about 8.000 operators and the use of about 3.500.000 m3 of concrete, 70.000 tonnes of valvers and floodgates for the hydraulic management of structures as well as the digging out of rocks and terrain for about 30.000.000 m3.
The importance of this work required a geotechnical monitoring in different points: Sisgeo and Monitoriza, a company of Sisgeo group, supplied and installed the necessary instrumentation.
