Panama Metro – Extension of line 2 of the Tocumen airport
Panama City, Panama
Merit Award
Sent by: Consortium Line 2 Branch (OEC & FCC)
Owner: Metro de Panama SA (MPSA)
Leading design company | Civil, structural and MEP engineer: TYLin International Panama
General contractor: Consortium Line 2 Branch (OEC & FCC)
Subcontractors: Plates; Brafer Construçoes Metalicas SA
Panama is now the first country in Central America to have a metro link between the center of its capital, Panama City, and its main international airport. Working at the airport, with restricted and secure areas and airspace regulations, required some creativity.
They are typically manufactured, transported, pre-assembled and then erected on site using tall cranes, a frame and a typical station space deck. In this case, the roof assembly was carried out on a stand installed above the level of the station platform, avoiding the use of cranes while remaining below the approach limit of the plane
There were formidable obstacles at every stage of the work, says the project team. One of these was full or partial stoppages during the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down work for 12 weeks until June 2020. There were also supply chain disruptions, scope changes, redesigns and reworks, union strikes and protests over cost-of-living increases that rocked. the country for weeks in 2022.
The procurement team in 2018 offered the best value bid at a starting price of about $88 million, according to public sources. The project began in March 2019, and was completed in March 2023, with a final cost of $105 million.
