Panama Canal Lock Project Ordered To Get Underway
La Prensa English Edition
The construction of the third set of locks will start next week.
The bidding process for the design and construction of the third set of locks came to an end yesterday when the Panama Canal Authority finalized the agreement with the low bidder for the project, Grupo Unidos por el Canal or GUPC.
The consortium, led by Spanish company Sacyr Vallehermoso, should begin work by Aug. 25, 2009. After that date, the consortium has 1,883 days to deliver the new locks, around mid-2014. The consortium was awarded the contract to construct the third set of locks because it submitted the low bid for the project, offering to complete it for $3.1 billion.
The order to proceed was issued by the government after insurer Zurich American Insurance Company delivered a performance bond of $400 million and a bond payment of $50 million.
Bechtel, Taisei, Mitsubishi Corporation, the consortium that came in with the second-lowest bid, which was $1 billion more than GUPC's offer, has sent a note to the Minister for Canal Affairs Rómulo Roux, warning about technical shortcomings in the winning bid. That letter was sent based on a review of the technical plans conducted by the company.
CANAL consortium, which submitted a bid of almost $6 billion, has also sent a letter to the government outlining its concerns about the technical plans submitted by GUPC.
Amid an economic crisis that has put the world's economy into a recession, the expansion of the Panama Canal, at a cost of $5.25 billion, is considered the largest construction project in Latin America.
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