Marine Traffic Control in the Panama Canal

Abstract

The Panama Canal Company's Marine Traffic Control is being designed primarily to minimize ships' average transit-time and obtain optimum use of Canal facilities, but it also includes features contributing to collision prevention. It prepares an operation schedule consistent with the number and characteristics of ships that are in transit and with operating conditions. Actual operation is continuously monitored and signals currently displayed to pilots to facilitate close adherence to the schedule. If the contemplated schedule is cancelled, as by trouble in locks or sudden periods of poor visibility, re-scheduling is rapidly formed and signals transmitted to pilots in conformity with the new schedule.The system's contribution to collision prevention includes elimination of several hazardous situations: (a) Undue crowding of traffic; (b) Lock-entrance stand-off delays due to untimely ship arrival, during which ship handling is difficult; (c) Meets or overtakes at potentially hazardous locations.Further, when approaching a bend on which other ships would not be visible and at which the meet would be hazardous, a pilot is advised of the number of ships which will be round the bend before he reaches it. Also indicated is the number of meets due to occur immediately beyond the bend, a distance through which the manœuvrability of his ship would be affected by the manner in which he rounds the bend. The automatically operating system is based on transmission of data comprising ships' identities and locations to a central control point where the data is analysed by an electronic computer and from which advisory signals are automatically transmitted back to the ships.

Effect of Inaugurating the Third Set of Locks in the Panama Canal on Vessel Size, Manoeuvring and Lockage Time

“…Once inaugurated on 26 June 2016, the third set of locks started to operate. Balboa Maritime Traffic Control Center (Kimball and Shepard, 1962) monitored the manoeuvres of ships transiting the expanded canal. Consequently the PCA could carry out a census on the time vessels spent in the lock.…”

An Index Model for the Evaluation of the Performance of Lock Navigation Scheduling Rules Considering the Perspective of Stakeholders

“…Navigation may efficiently relieve the pressure on land transportation of bulk goods within the catchment due to its vast volume, excellent flexibility, and low transportation cost characteristics. As an essential navigational structure, locks play a role in channelization and flow regulation, which are widely used in the Yangtze River Basin in China [1,2], the Albert Canal in Belgium [3,4], the Mississippi River and its tributary Ohio River in the United States [5][6][7], and the Panama Canal [8], etc. The China Statistical Yearbook 2022 issued by the National Bureau of Statistics of China shows that, as of 2022, China's inland waterway mileage totaled 127,600 km.…”

Operational Research into Marine Traffic and Collisions

“…Those familiar with block signalling on the railways and its history, 3 would note the similarity with the Panama Canal Traffic Control Scheme. 4 No doubt there is a high degree of similarity between the causes of collisions, whatever they may be, on bends in rivers and roads. Wepster has already shown the significance of speed in accidents on rivers 5 and the Working Groups on Traffic Separation at Sea based its work primarily on the 'accident black spot' principle, which was taken from the roads.…”