Flexible modularity and easy installation for large-scale projects
Panama City, with nearly 900,000 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries and more than 2,000,000 in its metropolitan area, is the largest and most populous city in the Republic of Panama, and Panama Metro Line 1 is a key part of its transport infrastructure.
Located on the Pacific coast, east of the mouth of the Panama Canal, the city has experienced highly fragmented and dispersed urban development since the beginning of the 20th century. This development has also been shaped by the presence of large areas of privately owned land and a historical trend towards linear growth along the main transport corridors to the east and northeast.
Against this backdrop of extensive urban sprawl and a growing population, the need arose to provide the capital with a public transport infrastructure capable of improving mobility and connectivity between the city’s different neighbourhoods and its outskirts, without placing additional pressure on surface transport.
Panama Metro Line 1 project context
Construction of Panama Metro Line 1 began in late 2010, and the line was inaugurated in April 2014. It extends for nearly 16 kilometres along a north-south route that connects the city and part of its metropolitan area through a corridor with high demand for public transport. To reduce construction costs and minimize its impact, most of the route was laid out along major avenues and through public spaces, without occupying surface traffic lanes, using both underground and elevated sections.
The line comprises a total of 14 stations, six elevated and eight underground, each with an average platform length of 110 metres. Initially designed to accommodate up to 15,000 passengers per hour in each direction, growing demand for the service has led over time to increases in both the number of trains and their frequency.
Regulatory compliance of Panama Metro Line 1
The construction of the stations and platforms responds to the need for a solid and robust design, using materials and finishes capable of withstanding intensive public use while also ensuring ease of use and strict compliance with the safety requirements established by local regulations.
To meet these requirements, a railing concept consisting of a stainless-steel structure with rounded profiles and tempered glass panels was installed: Comenza’s R-Concept: Glass system. This solution provides the required resistance and robustness while enhancing natural light and creating a lighter overall visual appearance. As a whole, it also helps create a consistent visual identity across the different stations without being visually intrusive, becoming a distinctive element of the design.
Given the urban scale of the Panama Metro Line 1 project, the ease and speed of installation offered by this modular solution were essential. A total of 6,500 metres of railing were installed within very tight deadlines, helping to reduce on-site installation times while minimizing costs and installation errors.
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