Vigo Engineering Digs the Panama Canal

Well, not exactly….but we did help.

When the Panama Canal began their modernization and enlargement plans, they called on Vigo Engineering to help upgrade facility cranes to maintain equipment needed for this vast undertaking.

The digging & enlarging of the Canal depended on the Dredging Division in Gamboa where a large repair shop and dock is headquartered. The shop had a 1940’s vintage Judson riveted girder crane needing replaced but after several days of inspection, Vigo Engineering showed we could upgrade the existing structure with a new double hook built-up trolley at 30/10 tons, all new inverter controls, electrics and wiring, new cab with joystick control, new Dorris horizontally split bridge drive, new drive train and end truck bearings. Full load testing of the finished crane at 125% overload testing proved the upgrade was successful. That followed with installation of two (2) new 15 ton low headroom double girder cranes for their workhorse Dredge Mindi, an Ellicot Dredge commissioned in 1943 measuring nearly 400 feet long and 10,000 HP, with the cranes needed to maintain pumping equipment on the 24 hour/day Dredge as they dug out the Culebra Cut for the modernization.

Ten subsequent overhead crane trips to Panama followed for the modernization including installing new cranes with capacities of 40/10 tons cab operated, 25/10 tons cab operated, 20/5 tons cab operated, a 20 ton single hook cab operated, a 10 ton box girder crane for Pedro Miguel Locks Locomotive Shop, a 7 ½ ton crane for the Cristobal Pump House, and a 5 ton crane for the motor rebuild shop; a total of 10 new cranes to help dig the Panama Canal.