Bridge of the Americas Closures

The Ministry of Public Works for Panama announced that starting tomorrow, Saturday August 29 2015,  there will be intermittent closures of the bridge of the Americas.  These closures are expected to last up to, and potentially beyond 10 months.

We are certain these closures will make getting in and out of the city messy. We encourage drivers to be prepared and plan ahead to mitigate road rage.  Here is what the Ministry of Public Works published today regarding the closures:

"Alternate use of the Centennial Bridge or the Omar Torrijos Avenue is recommended for car traffic to enter the city. The work will be extended to run until June 2016.  The work being done is related to the reinforcement of the slab rolling, paint, hardware changes, among others. "

So far a partial closure schedule has been released for August 29th going forward to the end of the month of September.

The summary of the closures outlines that the bridge will be partially or “intermittently” closed from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM.  During this time, Closing of a lane from south or north side, with an approximate length of 100 meters. Two operating lane towards Chorrera, and one operating lane to Panama City or vice versa.

Also partially or “intermittently” closed from 8:00pm to 4:30am.  During this time,  Closing of a lane from south or north side, with an approximate length of 100 meters. Operating north lanes, one towards Chorrera and the other towards Panama City or vice versa.

The ambiguous closures should leave those entering and exiting the city over the Bridge of the Americas two time slots where there are no closures or delays. These time slots are as follows: 3.5 hour window from 4:30am to 8:00am in the morning and a 2.5 hour window in the evenings from 5:30pm to 8:00pm. Optimistically this will mean less delays and construction during rush hour times, however this is not a guarantee.

If you have yet to familiarize yourself with the route into the city over the Centennial bridge, no time like the present! Also, if you have not downloaded the traffic app Waze yet, it's a good time for that too!