Panama to Have Subway by 2013

Panama, Jan 24. -Excavator Marta started on Monday the construction work of the underground stretch of the Panama Subway in the southern part located in the Albrook station with President Ricardo Martinelli as co-driverMartinelli inaugurated the drilling work with the enormous machine and wrote on his Twitter account that he hopes the subway will be completed on time and without cost overruns.

The equipment will excavate from Albrook to Via Espana, and its peer Carolina is doing it from the north to meet halfway in a year under the Carmen Catholic Church, a station through which both will be removed.

Those borers measure 9.77 meters in diameter and are 10-meter long, reaching a size that can be compared to a 37-store building.

Subway Executive Secretary Roberto Roy said they are working at a depth of 20 meters, advancing some 16 meters a day, depending on obstacles on its way during a year, seven days a week so that work is likely to conclude by the summer of 2013. (Prensa Latina)