The Panama Metro is a recently completed urban transportation system in Panama City, the capital of Panama.

Panama Metro Line 1 began construction in 2010 and started operating in 2014. It is 16 km long, with part of the line underground and part elevated.

Following the success of the first line, a second line has now entered the construction phase and was expected to begin operations by the end of 2018.

Pier Columns

For this large construction project, Dextra was involved between 2011 and 2012 (Line 1) and since 2015 (Line 2) for the structural reinforcement of the large pier columns in the elevated sections of the line.

On both lines, the Bartec coupler solution, popular in Panama, was chosen to vertically reconnect the large prefabricated cages made of #11 rebar.

To perform this application, cages are prefabricated on the ground before being split by unscrewing all the couplers on one side.

Once lifted and positioned on top of each other, with the same bars matching those they previously spliced, the cage reconnection can then be made using standard Bartec couplers.