Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP) has ordered consortium GUPC to construct the two locks in the new Panama Canal. Engineering group C.I.C.P. is, as subcontractor of GUPC, responsible for the design; Iv-Groep is one of its engineering firms.

Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP) has ordered consortium GUPC to construct the two locks in the new Panama Canal. Engineering group C.I.C.P. is, as subcontractor of GUPC, responsible for the design; Iv-Groep is one of its engineering offices. The consortium had the best technical solution and offered the lowest price: 3.1 billion dollars. The consortium was the only party that stayed below the budget of 3.48 billion dollars.

The two locks, one at the Pacific coast and one at the Atlantic coast, consist both of three lock chambers between which double doors are placed. This results in eight doors for each lock. The fall that the ships in these locks must bridge is 30 meters. The lock doors are, among other things, resistant to the influences of earthquakes that frequently occur in this region.
The Panama Canal runs for a large part through a sweet lake area. These lakes are very important to Panama. They provide the inhabitants of drinking water and energy. Vanishing of the water in these lakes would result in a great disaster and must therefore be prevented. For example, the risk of a collision of ships into one of the doors is overcome by building in a type of crumple zone in the lock doors.
To prevent a minimal loss of sweet water, water basins are used during lockage. By pumping the water during the lockage into these basins, it can be re-used.

The walls of the lock doors are made of concrete. They are about 35 meters high and 30 meters wide at the foot. Thus, they are about as high as wide.

The project will start mid-August 2009; the design must be finished by the end of 2010. The locks must be available for the shipping traffic in 2014. One of the requirements in the specifications was 99% availability for the passing ships. Naturally, this demands a lot of maintenance. This will be taken into account during the design phase. A novelty with regard to that is the maintenance of the wheel sets under the doors. Where now divers are still necessary, this design makes it possible that the wheels are lifted out of the water from above.

For Iv-Groep, the turnover of the project will be 20 million euro and 80 man-years work.
Iv-Groep has much experience with lock doors, e.g. the Malamocco locks in Venice, Italy, and the Noordersluis in IJmuiden, the Netherlands.

After a referendum, the Panamese government has announced its wish to broaden the Panama
Canal because of economic motives. At the most narrow point, the old Canal is 33.5 meters wide and thus accessible for Panamax ships. Post-Panamax ships cannot pass through. With the new locks, the Post-Panamax ships will be able to lock through the Canal as from 2014.