Panama is making progress in the construction of the first tunnel under the interoceanic canal for a metro line that will connect the capital with towns on the other side of the river by 2028.
The tunnel is part of the construction of the third line of the Panama City Metro, 25 km long, between Panama City, on the east bank, and the commuter town of Arraiján. The tunnel that will cross the canal will be 4.5 kilometers long and 13.5 meters in diameter, although the metro line on the west bank will be elevated.
Under the waters
“We are already under the waters of the Panama Canal,” said Carlos Cedeño, project director of the Panama Metro, during a media visit. He explained that the tunnel, of which one kilometer has already been built, will be “65 meters” below the bed of the interoceanic canal, inaugurated in 1914.
The excavation uses a special tunnel boring machine capable of withstanding high pressures and working in soft soil and hard rock. “It’s a unique tunnel; the depth is substantially greater” than the other two metro lines, which “has conditioned some of the main technical components of the project,” Cedeño noted.
Construction work on Line 3, which will cost more than $2 billion, is being carried out by a South Korean consortium led by Hyundai, although the tunnel construction was awarded to the Chinese company CRTG (China Railway Tunnel Group).
Substantial time-saving
The line is estimated to carry approximately 160,000 passengers per day across 11 stations. The tunnel is part of Line 3 of the metropolitan transportation system in Arraiján, about 10 km west of Panama City. With this project, authorities aim to eliminate the large traffic jams that occur daily on the two bridges that cross the riverbed in the capital area. The metro ride between the capital and Arraiján will take 20 minutes, while it currently takes up to 120 minutes during morning and afternoon rush hours.
