Two year traffic headache as subway tunneling moves ahead

Two giant TBM’s (Tunnel Boring Machines) will soon be at work in Panama on a five mile underground tunnel for the Metro Subway System.

Roberto Roy, executive secretary of the construction project, announced Thursday, May 19, that work on the  the  subway line  will be carried out at four different points in the city –  Cinco de Mayo, Transístmica, Albrook and at the end of Fernández de Córdoba.
The tunnel fromTransístmica will stretch five miles long to Albrook where work has been underway for a month.  
At Transístmica, where the early stages of construction are underway, resulting in huge traffic snarls, plans have been announced for the diversion of traffic for the next two years. 
He disclosed that the next opening point  will be  at the junction of Fernandez de Cordoba, and Via Spain Via, where a station will be located.
By year end  over 1,000 workers will be employed on the project, and by  2012 the figure will climb to 3,000.