The long-awaited Panama Canal expansion project has now been given a new deadline for May 2016 after major delays and expensive overruns, according to Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela.
During his address to the nation on Saturday, Varela urged the Spanish-led consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama (GUPC), in charge of the project, to focus on completing the Panama Canal expansion works, and leave legal disputes to competent authorities.
The appeal came after an adjudication board ordered the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to pay the consortium USD 17 million for budget overruns and extra labor costs.
The works were originally meant to have been completed in October 2014, however, numerous delays caused to project’s previous deadline to be pushed to April 2016, which was further postponed to May because of the repair works on the locks.
According to ACP CEO/Administrator Jorge L. Quijano, reinforcements of cracked locks detected in August 2015 are scheduled to be completed mid-January 2016, as assured by GUPC.
This will be followed by testing of locks reinforcements and additional testing in February.
As reported by World Maritime News, the ACP in December said that the expansion project of the canal has reached 96 percent completion.
Launched in 2007, the expansion project aims to triple the canal’s capacity.
Projected to amount to USD 5.3 billion, the expansion cost has been significantly exceeded.
Recent Post
The Directorate General of Sea Transportation carries out the Oversight Cooperation Agreement Progra
The Directorate General of Sea Transportation carried out an Oversight at the Head Office of PT Bureau Klasifikasi
New BKI Medan Branch Office Increases Business Effectiveness and Productivity
As a state-owned holding company for survey services - IDSurvey, in 2022, BKI Medan will contribute 17.5 percent of 100
Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia (BKI) Collaborates with Badak LNG to Develop Shipping Resources and Cert
PT Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia (Persero) or BKI as the parent BUMN of IDSurvey Holding initiated cooperation in the
BKI Wins the 2023 GRC Award as The Best in Corporate Risk Management
PT Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia (Persero) or BKI won an award at the 2023 GRC & Performance Excellence Award. This
Visit to the Chinese Classification Board
On September 12-13 2023, the IDSurvey Board of Directors visited CCS in order to strengthen cooperation between the two