Panama, the Chinese container inaugurated the “Italian” channel – The Republic

MILAN – The ship Cosco Shipping, a maritime giant along 300 meters with 10,000 containers on board, has inaugurated the new Panama Canal, a work largely ‘Italian’. The Chinese ship, but flying the flag Marshall Island, cut to local 7,48 the input tape in closed Atlantic. “Seven years ago – said the CEO of Salini Impregilo, Pietro Salini – began for us a long journey between dream and challenge that every business owner wants to experience once in your life: carry out the work capable of changing the world trade”. The ship sounded the trumpets for more than two minutes when he cut the ribbon to look out over the Atlantic.

The construction of the new channel – it is written in a note – delivered to the government of Panama by the international consortium led by Salini Impregilo, has prompted a huge yard with dizzying numbers: 50 million cubic meters of excavation, 290,000 tons of iron, 4.8 million cubic meters of concrete, more than 100 million hours of work. An impressive and complex work that always meets the criteria of environmental sustainability, with 60% of the water is recycled.

“A result – said Pietro Salini – achieved thanks to the commitment and determination of all those who have played a key role in the construction site, at peak times more than 11,000 people working every day to achieve a common dream; indirectly up to 30,000 people, all focused on a common goal: to live the new Channel. of this I thank all colleagues Salini Impregilo and other companies that have helped us to realize this dream. “

For the rendezvous with history the ship has become beautiful, she has been freshly painted and changed name, from “Andronikos” to “Cosco Shipping Panama”, before sailing from greek port of Piraeus. The new Panama Canal, which adds to the waterway built one hundred years by the American military genius, is the largest and complex engineering work built over the past decades. The project carried out by Salini Impregilo has introduced important innovations for the construction industry, for example, by creating a system of large interconnected basins that allow savings of 60% of water at each step of the closed, while with the old channel the water used for the transit of ships will continue to flow entirely into the sea. Jewel of the project are the 16 giant steel gates, built in Italy and transported by sea in the course of the seven years of construction.

Each of these gates, the average weight of 4 thousand tons, running in just four minutes its task, which is to open and close the water rooms – functioning as enormous freight elevator – allow mega ships to overcome the height difference of 27 meters between the existing artificial lake named “Gatun” and the two oceans. Cosco Shipping Panama entered the new channel through the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean; after passing the locks nicknamed “Agua Clara”; the crossing of Lake Gatun and closed Cocoli calls occurred at the entrance to the Pacific Ocean in the early afternoon. To receive it, after about ten hours of crossing, was the President of the Republic of Panama Juan Carlos Varela, with Pietro Salini and international dignitaries and invited local.

Topics:

Panama canal

Starring: