First underwater transport tunnel project kicks off in Panama

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino this week officially began construction and lining work on the first underwater transport tunnel that will pass under the Panama Canal, a major engineering feat intended for Metro Line 3. Mulino took the opportunity to congratulate the workers who will be in the tunnel boring machine for 22 months, 65 meters below the seabed of the Panama Canal, Newsroom Panama reported citing the official.

The project, which is 63% complete, will have a key section that will be the excavation under the seabed of the interoceanic route. It will connect the province of Western Panama with the province of Panama, connecting with Metro Line 1 at the Albrook station.

The Panama tunnel boring machine will be the key tool for carrying out this mega-project that will improve the transportation system in the Central American country. The excavator, which uses components manufactured in Germany, has an external diameter of 13.5 meters and a length of 93 meters, and will excavate and line 4.5 kilometers, crossing beneath the navigation channel of the Panama Canal.

Panama is expected to have a capacity of 200 linear meters per month, according to what the general director of the Panama Metro, engineer César Pinzón, told the media on Wednesday.

The construction of Metro Line 3, including the underwater tunnel, is designed to offer more accessible and efficient public transportation to the inhabitants of Western Panama. Metro Line 3, which runs for 24.5 kilometers from Albrook in the capital, will transport approximately 160,000 to 200,000 passengers daily and in its first phase will have 12 stations located in strategic sites, according to figures from the Panama Metro Secretariat.

This transport system to the West will have 26 six-carriage trains, with a total capacity of 1,000 passengers, of which 250 will be able to sit. The maximum speed will be 80 kilometers per hour.