Panama is working on the transformation from a traditional scheme of public transportation to a more integrated system, which will offer citizens access to quality and accessible transport services.
T.Y. Lin International Wins 2020 ENR Global Best Project Award of Merit for Panama Metro Line 2 in Panama City, Panama
T.Y. Lin International (TYLI), a globally recognized full-service infrastructure consulting firm, announces that Panama Metro Line 2 in Panama City, Panama, has been honored with a 2020 Global Best Project Award of Merit (Rail Category) from Engineering New-Record. TYLI served as Prime Designer, providing the architecture, led by Perez & Perez Architects Planners (P&P), and all engineering design services for the consortium, Consorcio Linea 2 (CL2). The project included a 23-kilometer-long viaduct with 16 elevated stations.
TYLI’s design for the viaduct superstructure consists of a twin “U” girder design. There are three track switches for operations, mounted on piers with spans between 20 and 30 meters, depending on geometry and alignment. The 16 stations feature two design types. Each station consists of a ground access level, a second level ticketing vestibule, an elevated crosswalk, operations/support offices, and a third level with passenger platforms for boarding both northbound and southbound trams. The total area of each station is approximately 7,000 square meters, with a total area of 112,000 square meters for all stations that are part of the project.
TYLI’s scope of work included seismic, structural, civil, architectural, electrical, and mechanical engineering, geotechnical analysis, interface/systems integration, and coordination services.
Panama Metro Line 2 starts in the District of San Miguelito, where it connects with the Panama Metro Line 1 station, which was also designed by TYLI, and extends to the east sector of Panama north of Tocumen International Airport. Line 2 is designed to carry 40,000 passengers per hour, with a minimum headway of 90 seconds.
CONSTRUCTION of Panama Metro’s $US 2.8bn Line 3 monorail project has started, following a groundbreaking ceremony on February 22 attended by president Mr. Laurentino Cortizo Cohen and Panama Metro general director, Mr. Héctor Ortega.
Work on the 24.5km project is expected to take approximately four years to complete. Its launch follows the approval of contracts and financing for the project earlier this month by Panama’s comptroller general, Mr. Gerardo Solís.
Construction will be carried out by the HPH Consortium, comprising Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Posco E&C, under a $US 2.06bn design, construction, and financing contract awarded in February 2020.
Phase 1 will run from Albrook to Ciudad del Futuro, carrying approximately 160,000 passengers. The line will reduce average travel times during peak hours from 1h 30min to 45 minutes and will have 14 stations. A potential 34km Phase 2 extension to La Chorrera is also planned.
Panama metro line 3 is a 34km-long monorail line being developed as part of the Panama metro project. It will be the largest project in the country since the expansion of the Panama Canal.
The line will establish a connection between the province of Panama Oeste and the province of Panama, reducing the average travel time by half, from 90 minutes to 45 minutes. The monorail system will be the first to use Japanese technology in the Americas.
The first phase of the project will connect Albrook to the Ciudad del Futuro sector, while the second phase will extend up to La Chorrera.
The line is expected to serve 20,000 passengers in each direction during peak hours with a four-minute interval between trains, while phase two is expected to serve approximately 32,000 commuters by 2050.
Panama Metro line three construction will create more than 5,000 jobs, including 800 local jobs during its development. Expected to begin operations in mid-2025, the line will benefit more than 500,000 residents of the Panama Oeste province.
Panama Metro Line 3 details
Phase one of Panama metro line 3 will be a 25km elevated monorail line, which will reduce downtown congestion and improve transport links across the region’s steep mountainous terrain.
The line will depart from Albrook Station on metro line 1 and run through Arraijan, continuing through the Pan-American road with a few stops in between, before terminating at the Ciudad del Futuro station.
Phase one will also include the construction of maintenance and storage facilities at Ciudad del Futuro.
The line will pass through a tunnel constructed underneath the Panama Canal. Set to become the first such beneath the canal, the 4km-long tunnel will have a diameter of 13m and will be situated at a depth of more than 50m. The first phase of the new elevated double-track monorail project will include 14 stations.
Each train will divide the operation of the line into two circuits, the east circuit for the 17.5km-long Albrook-Nuevo Chorrillo route and the complete circuit for the 25.85km-long Albrook-Ciudad del Futuro route.
Other developments will include the construction of pedestrian facilities and improvements to meeting areas around the stations.
Financing for the Panama Metro line three
The governments of Panama and Japan signed a funding agreement worth $2.6bn in April 2016 to support the construction of the new metro line.
The agreement also includes non-refundable technical cooperation of up to $350,000 to hire a project manager.
The funding was arranged by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on behalf of the Government of Japan. The loan has a 20-year term with 14 years of amortization, six years of a grace period, and three years for disbursement.
2016- Panama Metro to Buy 70 Carriages
Every day of the year an average of 270 thousand passengers use the Metro facilities. Statistics show a low number of incidents that could affect the service, demonstrating a high level of dependability in all facilities and equipment, which exceeds that of other rail systems, taking into account that it operates for 18 hours a day, 365 days a year. In order to cope with the constant increase in demand, the Government has authorized Metro de Panama, to acquire 70 new train carriages in order to have trained with 5 carriages. With this acquisition, instead of having the current 20 trains, there will be 26 trains each with 5 carriages.