Lock Gates Panama Canal

The requirements to be met by the design of the lock gates for the modernised Panama Canal were extremely stringent: the gates had to be able to withstand enormous water pressures, collisions and earthquakes. What's more, it had to be possible to open and close them within five minutes, they had to allow through only a small amount of water and had to be available 99.6% of the time. Due to the enormous dimensions of the lock gates, conventional design methods were not up to the job. Iv-Groep was responsible for designing the gates, the drive mechanism and control system, the integral RAMS analysis and supervision of construction work on the gates.

Expertise: Infrastructure design, Bridge & civil engineering, Structural engineering