Expanding the Panama Canal
2011-03-30
A fleet of Atlas Copco ROC D7 surface drill rigs is paving the way for expansion at the Panama Canal. Two new giant locks are being built which will double the Canal’s capacity and substantially boost its revenues from international shipping. Each rig is equipped with the Atlas Copco hole quality system HQS MKI2.
The Panama Canal is currently being expanded in order to double its capacity and boost its revenues from international shipping. Paving the way for the container ships of tomorrow is a fleet of a different kind.
The Panama Canal is one of the world’s most important international trading routes. Opened in 1914, it now enables more than 14 000 ships per year to travel back and forth between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. But now, almost 100 years since the canalwas built, the Panamanian authorities are preparing to receive bigger, heavier vessels than ever before. It is predicted that the world will see a major upswing in seagoing cargo traffic over the next few years, and to meet this challenge the Panama Canal is racing to double its capacity. Two new giant lock facilities are under construction – one at the Pacific end and one at the Caribbean end – to accommodate bigger ships, and carrying out the necessary drilling and blasting work is a fleet of six Atlas Copco drill rigs. This fleet, made up of ROC D7 drill rigs is owned and operated by Jan De Nul of Belgium, one of four companies within Grupo Unidos Por El Canal (GUPC) in cooperationwith Sacyr of Spain, Impregilo of Italy and Cusa of Panama.
Dual purpose drilling
Equipped with COP 1840 hydraulic tophammer rock drills, 89 mm drop center Secoroc bits and folding booms, these rigs are used for drilling and blasting at the so-called Third Lock Segment at the Pacific end of the canal. The rock here is broken and abrasive basaltand nine million tonnes is expected to be removed. In addition to preparing the site, the drill rigs serve the dual purpose of providing aggregate for the construction of the lock at the Caribbean end where rock is scarce. This aggregate, which will be barged up the canal, will be used for making concrete.
Perfect accuracy
The ROC D7 rigs are working two, 10-hour shifts per day, drilling to a depth of 9.5 m on three benches. About 2 000 m is drilled for each blast. To ensure accuracy, each rig is equipped with the Atlas Copco hole quality system HQS MKI2 which provides a wide range of practical features for hole quality optimization. These include hole depth measurement, feed angle optimization and an alignment device with a laser receiver which enables the operator to position the rig by lining it up with a distant reference point. Each rig is also equipped with Atlas Copco’s Procom satellite monitoring system which provides real time information on hammer percussion, engine hours, maintenanceschedules and rig location. The rock is a challenge but the rigs’ arsenal of modern technical aids is helping the operation to progress smoothly. Comments Pieterjan Versteele, Jan De Nul’s Plant Equipment Manager: “After you remove the overburden, there are slopes and angles in the rock surface and the drilling has to be perfect. You just can’t correct it afterwards.”
First timers
It is the first time that contractor Jan De Nul has used an Atlas Copco drilling fleet and full support is provided by the recently opened Atlas Copco Customer Center in Panama. This support includes both ROC Care and COP Care preventive maintenance service agreements. Hugo Arce, Atlas Copco’s BusinessDevelopment Manager for Central America and the Caribbean, says: “Maintaining quality tooling, parts, and experienced technicians are all very important for a contractor like Jan De Nul and a project with the size and scope of the Panama Canal expansion. “There are fifteen operators on the site, and all of them have been trained by Atlas Copco. They are very happy with the HQS MKI2 system and have been very quick to learn it and apply it in their everyday work.” Versteele adds: “The just-in-time support and service provided by Atlas Copco is extremely important for us on this type of job. We are very happy with the productivity. Although we are seeing variable life on the bits as there are so many variations in the basalt formation. “Overall, I think we’re getting very good performance. The COP 1840 hammer is strong and fast and the rigs’ feed alignment control system is a perfect tool to assist in the shaping and designing of the bench.” The largest preferred size of the fragmented rock is 30 cm. Drill and blast manager Jorge Perez Blanco says he has no problem keeping to that fragmentation with the 89 mm bits, but would like to experimentwith larger diameter holes and variations in the drill pattern. The drilling operations got under way in June 2010 and are expected to take 30 months to complete whereas the entire expansionproject is on schedule to be completed by 2014.
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