Rental Pumps in Panama Canal Project Move 1.7 Billion Gallons of Water in 22 Days

In 2007, the Authority of the Panama Canal (ACP) embarked on the ambitious Panama Canal Expansion Program, the largest development project since the canal’s original construction. Scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2016, the expansion project will result in the addition of a new traffic lane and two new lock complexes, one on the Atlantic Ocean and the other on the Pacific. The program is expected to have a direct, positive impact on international maritime trade. The end result will double the canal’s capacity and allow the passage of larger post-Panamax ships, which are mainly used for longer routes.

This project relied on a fleet of rental dewatering equipment to solve a complex water transfer challenge in record time. In May 2015, 64 mixers were supplied before the dewatering project was commissioned to prevent the formation of corrosive deposits on 16 rolling gates installed at the locks. In June 2015, the ACP required the third set of basin locks on the canal’s Pacific side to be filled with 1.7 billion gallons of water as part of the system’s performance trials prior to its commissioning. The project’s scope was immense. Water from Lake Miraflores had to be pumped to the vast new locks of the Panama Canal to test their functionality—uphill, in large volumes and in record time. The process began with a reconfiguration of the original system design, which saved time and money for the ACP. After the project was bid, ACP increased the elevation of the dam wall, which impacted the quantity of pumps, pipe and other equipment needed to provide the desired flow rate. ACP did not want to increase the area required for additional pumps or delay the project by adding time to set up the system or for the construction of a higher dam. The group also did not want an increase in cost. As a result, pipe was installed to act as a conduit through the dam wall to allow the system piping to be threaded through the conduit pipe. This change required far less time and money than the addition of pumps. The project required a specialized system that could handle pumping water up and over the wall of the new shipping channel. The system required 14 out of 15 pumps to be operational during the scheduled pumping periods when maximum flow was required, with one pump acting as a backup. Projects of this magnitude typically have two to four backup pump sets. The project did not require pumping at the maximum pumping potential during each event, and the pumping system did not operate 24/7 while the equipment was on site. To meet the tight time challenge, five Boeing 747 cargo planes transported the rental pumps and equipment from the U.S. to Panama. Fifteen automatic self-priming pump systems and 2.8 miles of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe were deployed from the U.S. in June. Over a period of 22 days, these pumps transported up to 122 million gallons of water per day. The project pumped enough water to fill 90,000 average-size swimming pools. The self-priming pump systems that were used in the project offer flow rates up to 9,770 gallons per minute (gpm) and can handle solids up to 4.9 inches in diameter. The pumps can automatically prime to 28 feet of suction lift. Solids-handling capacity, dry-run capability and portability make these pumps ideal for high-volume dewatering, as was required for the Panama Canal project. Each of the pumps was equipped with an 18-inch pipe and a flow meter, ensuring that the required volume of water was pumped within the time frame. The tailored solution also included real-time remote pump monitoring, ensuring that water was flowing during critical pumping periods. All flow data was accessible online and available via smartphone. This was a unique and challenging task, both in terms of the dewatering requirement and the project timeline. Despite the challenges, those involved were able to re-engineer the system, deploy equipment to the site in record time and successfully pump 1.7 billion gallons of water in just 22 days. The third set of basin locks at the Panama Canal includes reuse basins that will improve the canal’s efficiency, using 7 percent less water compared with the amount used by the existing locks. Sixty percent of the water in each transit operation will be recycled.