The president and general manager of Panama Canal Railway Company, Thomas Kenna, reported that the repair and rescue work of the bridge was carried out during the last three months by railway personnel in conjunction with a contractor company.
The construction work consisted of two parts, one was the construction of the pilaster where the bridge is mounted in the water, we had to replace that pilaster that was destroyed by the ship and at the same time, the rehabilitation, the reconstruction of the two beams, the two large pieces of the bridge that had fallen into the water and were damaged by the impact of the ship, said Kenna.
He indicated that while the construction work of the bases in the water was being developed, the beams were repaired, the work of the pilaster was completed a few days ago, today the two reconstructed pieces were placed and put in place, finally achieving the installation of the bridge.
He added that in the next two days they will proceed to install the railroad track, the necessary force tests will be carried out and it is expected that the container movement service will be restarted on Monday or Tuesday.
It is worth mentioning that this track has been kept out of service after the accident with the Bluebill ship, on June 23, when as it passed through the Panama Canal, it collided with the infrastructure of the railway bridge, knocking down part of this track Through which the train that transports cargo and passengers from Panama to Colon and vice versa.
It is a very happy day for us that we will finally be able to resume the service that was interrupted due to this accident,t Kenna said.