Panama Canal: Testing the new canal is targeted for August 2015, announced the administrator of Canal.

"In July or August 2015 we should be in the process of testing in the locks," said Quijano (Administrator of the Panama Canal) since he had just received four new lock gates in the area Colon on the Atlantic side of the canal as part of the expansion.

"Currently we focus on the electromechanical aspects because this part must be completed before water can enter in the locks in order to begin the series of trials," he added.

The two doors received recently left from the port of Trieste, Italy on August 17th where they were built by the Italian company Cimolai SpA. There are two doors and 57 m wide by 32 m high, with a thickness of 10 m and each weighing 4163 tons. The other two doors measuring 57 m wide, 22 m high and have a thickness of 8 m and a weight of 2,867 tons each.

In total 12 of the 16 gates of the new construction already arrived in Panama.

The last expected valves are almost ready and should arrive in Panama in the second or third week of November.

The extension of the Panama Canal will increase it's capacity to accomodate the post-panamax ships along the 80 km waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The work was delayed one year by labor and contract disputes, and is targeted to be completed in late 2015, according to the authorities. Since the opening of the canal in 1914 more than one million ships have traversed this waterway, mainly American and Chinese merchant vessels.

The Canal was transferred to Panama on December 31, 1999 after being administered by the United States.