Tag Archives: Agua Clara Locks

Today we continue with our exploration of the Agua Clara locks at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal expansion. I’ll be paying particular attention to the action of the locks themselves, as they are quite a departure from the pivoting locks used in the original system. In this first photo you can see the locks retracting into their side bays:

It’s not a fast process. Here are the same locks just one minute, forty-five seconds later:

In the distance you can see ships transiting the original lock system to the west:

The goal in either system of locks is to either raise or lower a ship from sea level to the level of Gatún Lake, seen here:

Here are some photos of the process. In the first photo the ship has entered a lock, and water is raising the ship to the next level:

Same ship nearly four minutes later:

Once the ship is raised, a tugboat pulls the ship along to the next lock or out of the canal:

Here once again here is my YouTube video of the process:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

The sight you see above is of the third set of locks installed at the Panama Canal. This new series of locks were completed in 2016, supplementing the older lock system completed in 1914. Specifically, these are the Agua Clara locks, and they handle entrance from the Atlantic side of the canal. The impressive bridge in the background is the Puente Atlántico, or Atlantic Bridge. Below is a view from the Atlantic Bridge of the original Gatún locks, which lie west of the expansion locks.

For comparison, here are the single-lane Agua Clara locks.

Whereas the older locks pivot to open and shut, forming a V shape when closed, the new locks operate in an entirely different manner as you can see in these three photos:

Here you see a freighter that has been lifted in the first lock and awaits entry into the next lock as the locks retract:

And here is the same ship now entering the next lock, which will raise it up to the level of Gatún Lake and allow the ship to transit the Isthmus of Panama:

Want to see how the whole operation appears? Here’s a short YouTube video I put together, then sped up to twice normal speed:

More to come on Wednesday. Until then…

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)