Inauguration of expanded Panama Canal to be delayed, administrator says

The video above, obtained by ICR News and other media outlets in September, shows water pouring through fissures in the new lockheads.

Panama City, Dec 18 (EFE).- The inauguration of an expanded Panama Canal, previously scheduled for April, will be postponed due to cracks detected in the new set of locks that are the centerpiece of the $5.25 billion overhaul, the interoceanic waterway’s chief administrator said Friday.

Panama Canal Authority, or ACP, head Jorge Quijano said the agency was still planning for the inauguration to occur during the second quarter of 2016 and no later than June.

Under the new timetable, the GUPC consortium that is carrying out the expansion will begin navigation tests in April, Quijano said in statements to business leaders that the ACP forwarded to EFE.

“We moved it to April due to these problems we had,” the administrator said.

The GUPC, led by Spanish construction giant Sacyr Vallehermoso, ordered extra steel reinforcement of the locks after water leaks were visible in August in one of the new lock heads on the Pacific side.

The consortium said that repair work would be completed by Jan. 15.

The inauguration of the expanded waterway was initially scheduled for October 2014 but has been postponed due to, among other reasons, work stoppages and a contractual dispute between the ACP and the GUPC.

The 80-kilometer (50-mile) inter-oceanic waterway, which was under U.S. control from 1904 until Dec. 31, 1999, currently handles nearly 6 percent of global trade.

Administrators launched the expansion project in 2007, including construction of a third set of locks that will enable the waterway to accommodate “post-Panamax” ships.

Those modern ships – used by the energy, and particularly the liquefied natural gas, industry – hold up to 12,000 20-foot-long containers and are three times bigger than what the canal can currently handle.

With the new set of locks, the canal will be able to handle up to 600 million tons of cargo annually, double its current capacity.