The Panama Canal Expansion works, the largest since the canal original construction, have reached near completion, with only four percent left to be completed.
In late December, the plug separating Culebra Cut from the new Pacific Access Channel was finally removed.
The blasting that was performed on Thursday, 24 December, cleared the way for Panama Canal Dredging Division to begin with the removal of the entire plug, uniting the new locks in the Pacific with the Gatun Lake.
Together with the help of Jan De Nul’s cutter suction dredger Niccolò Machiavelli, the project will be completed by using backhoe dredges Alberto Aleman Zubieta and Rialto M. Christensen, both owned by the Autoridad del Canal de Panama (ACP).