Planning and Design of the Port of Cristobal Phase 2 Expansion -Colon, Panama

This paper describes the planning and design of a major expansion at the Port of Cristobal in Panama. The port consists of a series of finger piers and slips connected to a rubble-mound breakwater. The expansion project will reconfigure the existing site by filling the slips and incorporating the existing 100-year-old finger piers into a new marginal wharf and container yard. Major features of the project include 9.9 hectares (24 acres) of pile-supported container yard and a new 420-meter-long (1,378 feet) super post-Panamax wharf. The ambitious three-year development schedule - combined with new construction at a busy, existing port - posed problems solved by partitioning the site and developing a program that allowed a sequenced handover of the works to accommodate the operator's needs. Integrating existing facilities and features into the new construction and unknown subsurface conditions were significant challenges. These challenges included rehabilitation of the existing pier structures, very deep soft soils requiring pile lengths up to 52 meters (171 feet) in length, seismic design of the large heavily loaded pile-supported deck, and accommodation of utilities within the deck structure. The solutions included varied pile types ranging from composite prestressed concrete piles with steel pipe pile extensions to large-diameter steel pipe piles.