First Bid to Widen
Panama Canal Awarded
The first bid in a
us$5.2 billion dollar
project to widen the
Panama Canal was awarded
on Friday to a
Panamanian company,
Constructora Urbana SA (Cusa),
officials said.
'Today, with this bid
(awarding), begins the
project to widen the
canal,' Minister of
Canal Matters Dani
Kuzniecky told
reporters.
Cusa won a us$41
million-dollar bid to
dig 6.7 kilometers (4.1
miles) of new channel in
the us$5.2 billion
dollar Panama Canal
modernization to
accommodate larger
ships.
The firm won out over 13
Asian, European and US
consortiums for the
right to move an
estimated 1.3 million
cubic meters (46 million
cubic feet) of sediment
and earth on the Pacific
side of the canal. Work
is to begin in 2008 and
end in 2010.
The overall plan is to
build lanes and a third
set of locks to
accommodate the world's
supertankers as well as
larger cargo ships
carrying 12,000
containers each, as
opposed to the 5,000
containers carried by
Panamax ships, the
largest that can
currently run the canal.
The project is expected
to take 10 years.
Some 14,000 ships
annually use the Central
American shortcut
between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, avoiding
the journey around South
America. |
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