How many panama canal locks

The locks have been called the structural triumph of the Panama Canal and are a unique aspect of the waterway. At the time of their construction, their overall mass, dimensions and innovative design surpassed any similar existing structures, and they are still considered to be an engineering wonder of the world. It took four years to build all of the locks from the first concrete being laid at Gatun on August 24, Until the late s, concrete, a combination of sand, gravel and cement, had been little used in building, and then mostly for floors and basements.

The concrete work in Panama was an unprecedented challenge that would not be equaled in total volume until construction of Boulder Dam in the s. In spite of the newness of the science, the results were extraordinary. After more than 80 years of service, the concrete of the Panama Canal locks and spillways is in near perfect condition, which to present-day engineers is among the most exceptional aspects of the entire Canal.

Canal organization ships, the Ancon and the Cristobal, brought all of the cement to build the locks, dams and spillways from New York.

On the Atlantic side, gravel and sand came by water from areas east of Colon, the gravel from a large crushing plant in Portobelo and the sand from Nombre de Dios. The work took years of advanced planning. Hodges was an Army officer and an invaluable assistant to Goethals, had overall responsibility for the design and construction of the lock gates, arguably the most difficult technical responsibility of the entire project.

Goethals was to state that the Canal could not have been built without Hodges. Schildhauer was an electrical engineer and Goldmark was in charge of lock gate design. The key factor in the whole Canal enterprise, of course, was, and is, water. Water lifts ships 85 feet above sea level to the surface of Gatun Lake, floats them across the Continental Divide and lowers them again to sea level in the opposite ocean. Water also serves to generate electrical power for the Canal to run the electric motors that open and close the gates and valves and the electric locks locomotives.

No pumps are used at the Panama Canal, the water does its work by force of gravity alone. Water is admitted or released through giant tunnels, or culverts, eighteen feet in diameter, running lengthwise within the center and side walls of the locks.

Branching off at right angles to these culverts, smaller culverts run laterally under the floor of each lock chamber, 20 to each chamber. Each cross culvert has five openings for a total of holes in each chamber for the water to enter or drain, depending on which valves are opened or closed.

This large number of holes distributes the water evenly over the full floor area to control turbulence. To fill a lock, the main valves at the lower end of the chamber are closed, while those at the upper end are opened. The water pours from the lake through the large culverts into the cross culverts and up through the holes in the chamber floor.

To release the water from the lock, the valves at the upper end are closed, while those at the lower end are opened.

The gates swing like double doors. The hollow, watertight construction of their lower halves makes them buoyant in the water, greatly reducing the working load on their hinges. All gate leaves are 64 feet wide by 7 feet thick. However, they vary in height from 47 to 82 feet, depending on their position.

For example, the Miraflores Locks lower chamber gates are the highest because of the extreme variation in the Pacific tides.

The simple, yet powerful gate operating mechanism was designed by Edward Schildhauer. The maximum dimensions of ships that can transit the Canal are: The water used to raise and lower vessels in each set of locks comes from Gatun Lake by gravity; it comes into the locks through a system of main culverts that extend under the lock chambers from the sidewalls and the center wall. This segment, approximately Ships from all parts of the world transit daily through the Panama Canal.

Some 13 to 14 thousand vessels use the Canal every year. The new locks will not replace but augment the existing locks, and allow the canal to handle larger post-Panamax ships and tankers. To connect those locks to existing shipping lanes, nearly 5 miles of channels will be excavated. The current route through Gatun Lake will also be deepened by 5 ft. Gatun Lake will then be raised 1. About million tons will be excavated over the next seven or eight years, more than half the amount removed during 34 years of French and U.

Dry excavation could begin this year; work on the new locks could start in and on Gatun Lake in Tight fit: Panamax ships have a clearance of about 2 ft. Electric-powered "mules" are used to position vessels. The biggest tax on the water supply, though, is the canal itself. It requires, on average, more than 2 billion gal. An expansion plan that included bigger locks with a traditional design would have doubled water consumption.

One way to address the problem -- build dams to create new reservoirs -- was a nonstarter. It would have meant relocating residents, even entire communities, which was politically unpalatable. Then, in , canal officials visited the Hohenwarthe Locks on the Elbe River in Germany and saw a solution: locks that recycled some of the water used in transits. Three shallow basins adjacent to each chamber in the new locks will collectively capture 60 percent of the water from the locks as they are emptied.

This water will be used to partially refill the locks when another ship comes through. As a result, although the new lock chambers will hold 65 percent more water than the originals, they will use 7 percent less water per transit. The canal authority also will raise the level of Gatun Lake, making an additional million gal.

But even if both sets of locks run full tilt, he says, "we will run out of capacity before we run out of water. The canal's current miter gates are based on a design found in the 15th century notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci: double-leaf doors hinged on chamber walls and sealed by water pressure.

Each leaf is 65 ft. For repairs and maintenance, they need to be removed and taken to a dry dock, shutting down a traffic lane and causing delays like those that occurred last August. Once again, ACP officials found a European solution, where new locks on several canals accommodate post-Panamax ships. These locks, most notably the Berendrecht Lock in Antwerp, Belgium, employ two rolling gates, which are stored in recesses in the lock wall.

The gate works like a wheelbarrow, with sets of wheels on the front and rear. When tilted forward in the recess, the gate slides across the chamber; when tilted backward, it returns to its recess. Most significantly, the twin-gate design allows canal crews to seal one of the recesses with a bulkhead and pump it dry, creating an on-site dry dock for maintenance and repairs.

Meanwhile, the other gate is used to keep traffic moving. For generations, seamen and cruise ship passengers have watched electric locomotives known as "mules" glide along lock-side tracks, pulling on hawsers to maneuver ships in the lock chambers. The new locks would have required 12 to 16 mules to position post-Panamax vessels.

Instead, tugboats that already service canal traffic will align ships in the chambers -- one at the bow and one at the stern. In conversation, canal officials make it clear that they see themselves as carrying on a grand engineering tradition. Expansion plans for the Panama Canal call for two new sets of triple locks--one at the Atlantic entrance to the waterway and one at the Pacific.

Although the new locks will be 65 percent larger than the current locks, the new design incorporates recycling basins that will reduce the amount of water for each transit by 7 percent.