Another big Panama Canal project up for bids

Martime Global Net
August 3, 2009

THE Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has released its Request for Proposals (RFP) for the fourth dry excavation contract, the second largest and most complex project after the locks contract. Rounding out the last of four dry excavation projects, the fourth dry excavation project represents a key portion of expansion's new access channel linking the new Pacific locks with the waterway's existing Gaillard Cut (the narrowest stretch of the Panama Canal).

"Releasing the fourth dry excavation RFP today signals a critical real step forward. As expansion's second largest contract, this project will create the final portions of expansion's new lane. It will require keen expertise due to its scope and quantity of work," said ACP Executive Vice President of Engineering and Program Management Jorge Quijano. "We are confident in the top-caliber bids that we will receive and look forward to awarding the contract. We are pleased that, so far, expansion works remain on-track and on-budget."

The scope of work will include 27 million cubic meters of unclassified excavation, the installation of a backfilled cellular cofferdam water barrier and the construction of an earth-rock filled dam that will conform part of the eastern bank of the access channel.

The expansion project will result in a new lane of traffic along the Panama Canal through the construction of a new set of locks that will double capacity and allow more traffic and longer, wider ships.

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