Scheduled lane outage at Pedro Miguel Locks

28 Apr 2025 / Panama Canal, Panama

Beginning at 0001 hours on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, until 2359 on Saturday, May 31, 2025, (5 days), dry chamber maintenance will be performed on the West Lane of Pedro Miguel. The East Lane will remain open, but lockages will take additional time.

During this period, and in accordance with the rules governing the Transit Reservation (Booking) System, the number of slots available in the Panamax Locks will be reduced to 16. Therefore, beginning with the 2nd Period tiebreaker competition from May 13 to 17, 2025, for booking dates from May 27 to 31, 2025, four (45) booking slots will be offered to supers and no booking slots will be offered to regular vessels. No booking slots will be offered during Booking Period 3 for both supers and regular vessels. The total number of slots will be 13 for supers and three (3) for regular vessels…

…Additionally, during the maintenance period, of the total number of slots available to supers, no more than seven (7) supers may be booked for transit in each direction, and of these, no more than two (2) with daylight restrictions per direction. The combined number of daylight restricted vessels shall not exceed four (4) vessels. Similarly, no more than two (2) regular vessels may be booked for transit per direction, and of these, no more than one (1) may be allocated to vessels transiting with restrictions per direction for a total of one (1) vessel with restriction per transit date. Slots allocated during the Special Period and Period 1 for booking dates within the maintenance period will be grandfathered in case they exceed these limitations.

Once the maintenance is complete, the 26 slots for the Panamax Locks will be reinstated for booking dates beginning June 1, 2025.

Furthermore, the following modifications to the Transit Reservation (Booking) System will be implemented:
- Effective immediately, vessels will not be allowed to request a Swap, Substitution or change date while having an HML = M and must request the CPC office the assignment of the HML after providing all the required information.

(For information about operations in the Panama Canal, contact GAC Panama at [email protected])

Source: Panama Canal Authority Advisory To Shipping No. A-09-2025

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