Sener takes part in a new milestone in the expansion of the Panama City metro network

The Sener engineering and technology group participates in the expansion of Line 1 of the Panama City Metro, as the lead designer of the civil works for this project, which it undertook for the consortium consisting of the construction companies OHLA and Mota-Engil.

Line 1 cuts north-south across Panama City, from Albrook to San Isidro. It has 14 stations (6 elevated and 8 underground) and runs over 16 kilometres, with a total journey time of 26 minutes. Between 240,000 and 280,000 people use its services every day.

With the new extension, the line extends 2.4 km to the north towards the Villa Zaita area, adding a new station with the same name. The new section is elevated throughout its entire length, suspended atop prestressed concrete beams up to 30 metres long. The station is also elevated, located above Avenida Transístmica, whose width expands from two to three lanes in each direction. Rounding out the station is an intermodal building consisting of a bus station (with 16 platforms) and two parking floors (600 spaces). The project also includes the redevelopment of the area around the track and station, with a total area close to 13 hectares.

The investment associated with the project exceeds 200 million euros, and it is estimated that it will increase traffic on the line by around 30,000 passengers a day.

Sener developed the conceptual, basic and detailed engineering of the civil works of the project, including the design of the route, the viaduct, the station, the intermodal building, pedestrian accesses, the extension of Avenida Transístmica and the development, as well as the management of the interfaces with the railway systems.

The extension was opened recently by the President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo, and the CEO of the Panama Metro, Héctor Ortega.

Sener already took part in the project for the first phase of line 1, which was commissioned in 2014, carrying out the basic and detailed design, and providing technical assistance onsite, the tunnel section, underground stations and workshops and depots for the consortium tasked with the construction, FCC and Odebrecht.

Sener is currently involved in other iconic projects in the country, such as the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal and Metro line 3, actions that improve the connection between Panama West and Panama City by alleviating the traffic that exists in these areas, thus improving the quality of life of over one million people.

“We are happy to continue helping to promote a more sustainable mobility model in Panama City by designing a project as technically complex as this one”, says Pelayo Suárez, head of Sener at Panama. “This extension will grow the network’s capacity and provide service to new areas, promoting intermodality and ultimately allowing more of the public to access more efficient mobility alternatives”.