Xylem awarded $6m contract for Panama Canal expansion project

Xylem, a water technology provider, is playing an important role in the Panama Canal expansion program (PCEP).

Xylem is providing its Godwin dewatering pumps to fill the third set of basin locks on the Pacific Ocean sector, with 1.7 billion gallons of water, as part of performance trials for the system prior to its commissioning.

The PCEP is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2016, when it will create a new traffic lane and build two new lock complexes, one on the Atlantic Ocean and the other on the Pacific, allowing for the passage of New Panamax ships, doubling the capacity of the Canal.

This is the second project that the Authority of the Panama Canal (ACP) has awarded to Xylem under the PCEP.

Earlier this year, Xylem supplied 64 Flygt mixers to prevent the formation of corrosive deposits on the rolling gates during installation.

To support the dewatering project, Xylem installed 15 Godwin diesel-driven pumps, deployed from the US.

In June, these pumps transported up to 122 million gallons of water per day (MGD) from the Miraflores Lake to fill the third set of locks on the Pacific.

Over a period of 22 days, the project consisted of pumping enough water to fill 90,000 average sized swimming pools.

Xylem is providing turnkey services and equipment for the project, with its engineers designing and installing the system, which also includes more than 2.5 miles of 18-inch high-density polyethylene pipeline (HDPE) to transfer the massive amounts of water.

Xylem is also supervising the performance of the Godwin pumps with its remote pump monitoring system.

The third set of basin locks includes reuse basins that will save water and also improve the Panama Canal’s efficiency, using 7% less water compared with the amount currently used by the existing locks.

In addition, in each transit operation, 60% of the water will be recycled.