Panama ports

The Panama Ports Company (PPC) has a 25 year concession agreement for the development, construction, operation, administration and management of the ports of Cristobal and Balboa at the north (Caribbean) and south (Pacific) ends of the Panama Canal.

For the first 10 years of this concession period Halcrow has been providing the company with advice and design expertise for the development and expansion of these two strategically located ports.

Halcrow’s involvement began in 1997, when we were appointed to evaluate the existing facilities at the Port of Bilboa. We carried out a condition survey for the port infrastructure, including quay structures and services, then evaluated the economic usefulness of the infrastructure and recommended repair and/or replacement options. We also undertook a condition survey of the fire/water mains, foul and storm drainage system, communications services ducts and oil bunkering pipelines, and established the location and condition of buried pipelines.

Based on these surveys, we developed layout options for a new container terminal, including both waterside and landside facilities, and produced tender documents for design and construction of a 350m long, deep water berth for post-panamax container vessels, together with an adjoining container yard and supporting buildings, services and roads.

We then helped the client to evaluate the tenders and award a contract for the £50 million project, and subsequently provided full time site supervision throughout the construction, which was completed in 2000.

Halcrow was subsequently engaged to prepare scheme designs and tender documentation for the next phase of the container terminal’s development, consisting of a new deep water berth for super post-panamax container vessels, conversion of an existing general cargo berth into a panamax container berth, and dredging and reclamation for a further 25 hectares of container terminal. Our role involved port planning work, and outline designs for quay walls, berth deepening, services and utilities, paving, dredging and reclamation and river diversions.

We then prepared the design and build tender documents for this phase of the development, evaluated the tenders and provided full time site supervision for two marine contracts and an electrical infrastructure contract.

In 2004 PPC appointed Halcrow to provide a design check for converting Berth 15, an existing general cargo berth, to a panamax container berth suitable for vessels up to 5,000TEU. The conversion involved demolishing part of the existing berth, constructing new crane beams by utilising existing piles, installing additional sheet piles and deepening the berth by installing a toe wall and additional dredging. The completed berth provides the client with approximately 600m of berthing for panamax container vessels.

Halcrow has also been involved in the development of PPC’s Cristobal Port at the north end of the Panama Canal, beginning in 2000 with the upgrade of berthing and mooring facilities at the Cruise Terminal. Construction was procured on a fast-track basis, so that the terminal would be completed in time for an opening ceremony in October that year.

Procurement of the upgraded facilities was undertaken via two contracts: a design and construct contract for the supply of fenders suitable for cruise vessels in excess of 300m LOA; and a civil works upgrading contract for new bollards and modifications to the quay structure. Halcrow prepared tender documentation for the two contracts and supervised the work on site.

In 2001 we were commissioned to undertake an extensive data collection exercise, detailed site inspections of existing infrastructure, pavements and utilities, material testing and preparation of a feasibility study report for the development and expansion of the existing container terminal at Cristobal.

Three years later we were engaged to provide design checks for a new container yard and conversion of Berth 7, an existing general cargo berth, to a panamax container berth with three gantry cranes. The project involves widening the existing reclamation to provide sufficient container yard for up to three post-panamax container vessels.