Maintenance work to reduce traffic through Panama Canal’s old locks by almost 40% this week

The Panama Canal’s old locks will be at reduced capacity for four days because of maintenance work that began on Tuesday.

Under the scheduled maintenance the west lane of the Miraflores locks will undergo dry chamber seals repairs on two gates, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP). And the west lane of the Pedro Miguel locks will also be out of service.

For the period of these works the daily capacity of the old locks will be reduced by an average of about 37% or 13 vessels.

The ACP is the government agency responsible for operating the canal.

The old locks have been overshadowed in the news for months by the new locks which opened with much fanfare in June as the centrepieces of a $5.3bn expansion project.

Since opening, the new locks have been subject to controversy and scrutiny because of alleged design flaws that have been blamed by some for one Chinese panamax containership gashing its hull after scraping the lock wall.

And other ships have allegedly had close calls in the too-tight dimensions of the new locks, although the ACP disputes such claims.