PSA Panama

Our first international project! And quite an exceptional one too!

In the Central American country Panama, to the west of Panama City, on the side of the Pacific Ocean, our parent company Jan De Nul extended an existing quay wall of 330 m to 800 m: the PSA Terminal (Port-of-Singapore-Authorities terminal). The quay was built on five rows of foundation piles covering an 800-metre distance. On top of these 614 piles, over a width of 35 metres, large concrete prefabricated elements were placed. These piles have a diameter of 1.10 or 1.40 m and are 27 to 35 metres long, the latter ones protruding up to 4 metres above sea level. In other words, we had to drill quite deep into the soil. In addition, the soil was also very diverse so that each pile had to be drilled differently. In some places, we hit sand or clay but in others rock as hard as granite.