Xylem pumps in €5.5 m Panama Canal contract

Global water technology company Xylem is playing an important role in the Panama Canal Expansion Programme (PECP).

Xylem is providing its heavy duty Godwin dewatering pumps to fill the third set of basin locks on the Pacific Ocean sector, with 1.7 billion gallons of water, as part of performance trials for the system prior to its commissioning. The rental project is said to be worth $6 million (€5.5 million).

The programme is scheduled to finish in the second quarter of 2016. It creates a new traffic lane and builds two new lock complexes, one on the Atlantic Ocean and the other on the Pacific, allowing for the passage of New Panamax ships and doubling the capacity of the Canal.

"We are honored to work with the Authority of the Panama Canal (ACP) and to be part of this project which expands one of the world’s most important transport routes,” said Colin Sabol, senior vice president and president of Xylem’s dewatering business.

This is Xylem’s second project under the PECP. Earlier this year, it supplied 64 Flygt mixers to prevent corrosive deposits forming on the rolling gates during installation.

To support the dewatering project, Xylem installed 15 Godwin diesel-driven pumps. In June, these pumps transported up to 122 million gallons of water per day from the Miraflores Lake to fill the third set of locks on the Pacific.

Xylem is providing turnkey services and equipment for the project, with its engineers designing and installing the system, which also includes more than 2.5 miles of 18-inch high-density polyethylene pipeline (HDPE) to transfer the massive amounts of water. Xylem is also supervising the performance of the 15 Godwin pumps with a remote pump monitoring system called Field Smart Technology.