Panama Canal Awards Last Excavation Contract
Admiral doubts it's defensive

Peter T. Leach
The Journal of Commerce Online

January 7, 2010

Spanish, Mexican, Puerto Rican consortium wins bid

The Panama Canal Authority on Jan. 7 awarded the fourth and final contract for dry excavation for a channel to its third set of locks to FCC-ICA-MECO, a joint venture between Spanish, Mexican and Puerto Rican engineering companies

The PAC-4 contract, as it is called, will help create an access channel linking the new Pacific locks with the Canal's existing Gaillard Cut, which is the narrowest stretch of the Panama Canal.

FCC-ICA-MECO submitted a bid of $267,798,795 for the contract on Dec. 22, which turned out to be the lowest submitted by the four bidders.

The canal authority said that following a comprehensive review, it determined that the bid met the requirements of the RFP and awarded the contract to this consortium for what is called the PAC-4 project.

The project includes excavating 26 million cubic meters of unclassified excavation, installing a backfilled cellular cofferdam water barrier and building an earth-rock filled dam that will create part of the access channel's eastern bank.

Other work under this contract includes:

• constructing access roads;
• managing disposal site areas for excavated or dredged material;
• installing a dewatering system to remove surface and underground water;
• clearing unexploded ordnance (UXOs) - remnants from former U.S. military training facilities in the Canal area; and,
• other miscellaneous tasks such as demolition work.

The $5.25 billion expansion project involves building 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.

http://www.joc.com/node/415797