Posted on 08/28/2015 2:10:05 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER
A core sample pulled from the concrete of the Cocoli Locks where cracks and leaks have appeared does not bode well for the Panama Canal expansion project, which is on a strict deadline for completion in April 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
Just throw some sawdust upstream. That’ll stop the leak until after the final inspection. :)
Or none.
Holy Rebar!
If it wasn’t leaking it would be collapsing.
Yep, screwed up concrete is China’s characteristic failure mode.
“Ancient Chinese Sakrete.”
Argghhhhh!
And how many here are old enough to get the pun, like me? Ancient Chinese Sakrete, huh!
;^)
John Stevens either.
I know a little bit about the PC...the original lock gates and the electrical control systems have been changed several times since 1914.
The original lock chambers have not been touched.
Build a canal and get a free water fall!
Note:
GUPC is a consortium made up of Sacyr Vallehermoso of Spain as its head, with Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructura Urbana, SA (CUSA) of Panama.
Not third world contractors.
During the three years I worked there, we worked on the Cape Fear River bridges near Wilmington, high rise condos at Kure Beach, and the NUCLEAR power plant near Southport. There were lots of folk looking over my shoulder, and my ass!
WE always got good results, because it was MY ASS on the line. I take pride in those results.. I can look at the results and know that I did what was necessary, not only to make money for the company, but to help make sure people were safe.
That core sample in the article is the worst example of concrete I have ever seen. EVER...
There is only one recourse for that place, IMHO. Destroy and start over. Of course, they will just continue and people maybe will die. Dead! Murdered by incompetence and thievery.
Concrete is easy to crew up. It is most often ruined by addition of too much water to make it easy to handle. BUT, concrete production is like baking. You must maintain constant control of the ingredients, and the proper placement. No doubt, they missed those classes!
I have to wonder.
Does this third set of locks have a dam to prevent uncontrolled releases?
If not and the new set of locks fail, IMHO a very likely event, the entire Panama Canal System would fail as Gatun Lake drains. Bottom line: No Gatun lake no short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. And it would take years for the Lake to refill itself.
The writer of that article doesn’t know dick about concrete. LOL.
The original Panama Canal was undertaken by the same French companie that built the Suez Canal. After they failed, the Yanks went in and did it.
America could not build either the Panama Canal or the Hoover Dam if we had to start over today. Rotten mis-”education”, corrupt politics, infantile press. We are screwed.
My daughter got her PhD at Tulane so we made more than a couple trips down there. I believe part if not most of the problem in New Orleans is that part of the French Quarter may have fallen as much as 16 feet over the last 200 years or so. We did the swamp tour and the guide pointed out that we were at essentially sea level there but still 16 feet above Canal Street.
A lesson Americans are about to learn, to their peril.
that appears to be a very ugly rough and leaking cold joint
Nicaragua would be a sea level canal, no locks, but a much longer slog.
You probably know more than I do about it, but I know somehow they're tying it into the end of Lake Nicaragua and on a (now) small tributary that eventually runs either to Caribe or Pacific (it's how bull sharks migrate into fresh water Lake Nicaragua). I'm going to Granada on the Lake in November for a few days - nothing related to the canal proposal, but I may stumble into some information.
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