Canal Expansion Project News

Climate change, rising sea levels, land reclamation and offshore energy are all factors underpinning business models at Europe’s dredge and marine engineering majors. They are adopting strong sustainability credentials as their operations come under closer environmental, social, governance (ESG) scrutiny and new opportunities open up in the US offshore wind sectorThe relatively small number of global marine engineering and dredge firms face more observation of their business models than ever before.

U.S. salvage industry update: Coast Guard recognition and continuous improvement for the domestic salvage industry and its working professionals.Professional salvors are called in when the ship’s crew is overwhelmed – the last resort to protect lives, minimize environmental impacts and save the ship and cargo. These salvage masters, divers, firefighters, naval architects, heavy lift operators and other salvage team members regularly go into harm’s way and consistently perform incredible feats. They commit their lives and livelihoods to this work.

In the waning days of 2016, the outlook brightened dramatically for the big U.S. dredging contractors. Just before Congress dispersed for the Holidays, then-President Obama signed a pivotal piece of legislation – the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, S612. Authorized needed investment in America’s ports, channels, locks, dams, and other infrastructure that supports the maritime and waterways transportation system and provides flood protection. Authorized U.S.

Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering consultancy Glosten has promoted Ken FitzGerald to Principal. FitzGerald is a graduate of Louisiana State University (BS, Petroleum Engineering, 1992), and joined Glosten in 2003 after 13 years working in commercial oceanography. While at Glosten, he has supported the firm’s work in mooring design, geophysical surveys, research vessels, logistics planning, and has managed risk assessment workgroups. He is a subject matter expert in mooring and maneuvering, and has managed ship alteration projects of all types.

Port Everglades and the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) have renewed their long-standing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote trade opportunities for another five years. This renewal will extend their strategic alliance to 2021. The MOU solidifies both entities' dedication to growth and best customer practices. The ACP and Port Everglades first signed an MOU in August 2009. Areas of cooperation between the ACP and Port Everglades include joint advertising programs, data interchange, and competitive market analyses of the shipping industry. This alliance will also continue to promote the route to the West Coast of South America as well as the  "All-Water Route," the route from Asia to the U.S. East Coast via the Panama Canal.

The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) has been misused and underutilized for years, leaving U.S. ports and harbors in subpar conditions and disadvantaging the very shippers that pay to modernize and maintain them – to the tune of nearly $2 billion per year. In May, the U.S. House of Representatives’ (House) Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Committee) took a major step in the right direction by passing the Water Resources Development Act of 2016, which among other things…

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, and its US dealership Darr Equipment Co. of Houston have delivered a Kalmar Super Gloria reachstacker for barge handling to the JR Intermodal Green Transport Terminal in Texas. The order was booked in August 2015, with delivery on May 30, 2016. This unique reachstacker is the first Kalmar Super Gloria that has been delivered to the Western Hemisphere. The unit can reach the fourth row in a barge, which is further than Kalmar's standard reachstacker, and lifts 45 metric tonnes. The Kalmar DRG450-92HCS5XS reachstacker has a long nose and over height legs for negative lift, and good capacity retention (27 metric tonnes in the fourth row with the support jacks down).

The Chinese giant Cosco Shipping  has made the inaugural transit on Sunday June 26, 2016  through the expanded Panama Canal expansion project , event appreciated by thousands of people in Agua Clara lock province of Colon. Spectators watch as the Neopanamax cargo ship, Cosco Shipping Panama, makes its way through the new Agua Clara locks, part of the Panama Canal expansion project, near the port city of Colon, Panama. The container vessel had set sail from the Greek Port of Piraeus today on its way to Panama to make history. The ship carrying more than 9,000 containers entered the newly expanded locks that will double the Panama Canal's capacity in a multibillion-dollar bet on a bright economic future despite tough times for international shipping.

History will be made in Panama on Sunday, June 26, when the first-ever Expanded Panama Canal is inaugurated. The COSCO Shipping Panama will transit through the new locks on this significant day, with the world as its audience. The Panama Canal Expansion project is the largest construction project undertaken in the waterway since its opening in 1914. Considered and analyzed for a decade with more than 100 studies, construction on the first-ever expansion began in 2007 to provide the world (shippers, retailers, manufacturers, consumers) with greater shipping options, better maritime service, enhanced logistics and supply-chain reliability.

Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania journal, says that the transformation Panama Canal expansion project will bring to Panama’s domestic economy and society have been largely overshadowed by the historic expansion. With the opening of the long-awaited Panama project this June, all eyes are on the impact the $5.25 billion engineering marvel will have on maritime traffic across the vital international lanes that link the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The expansion has already bolstered Panama’s efforts to become the Singapore – or perhaps Dubai – of Central America. It also promises to help to transform the role that Panama is playing for many U.S. and other foreign firms that are doing business in Central and South America.

The Panama Canal expansion project is now expected to be finished “mid of 2016” says a report in Reuters quoting the waterway's administrator. "The new set of larger locks for the Panama Canal will be complete by the end of June, after more than a year-long delay and after builders repaired cracks that had formed in the concrete walls," says  Jorge Quijano, who leads the Panama Canal Authority. The consortium building a third, bigger set of locks on one of the world's busiest maritime routes, headed by Italy's Salini Impregilo and Spain's Sacyr , is now in testing, the final step before the project's inauguration. Panama should start to benefit from the expansion in 2017…

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) recently hosted members of the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) during a visit to tour Canal facilities and participate in briefings with ACP executives earlier this month. Approximately 80 soybean producers and representatives from 13 soybean producing states attended from the U.S.-based coalition. Together, STC members encompass 85 percent of total soybean production in the United States. Ilya Marotta, ACP Executive Vice President of Engineering and Program Management and Maria Eugenia Sanchez…

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which administers the canal, is looking at building a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import terminal near the Canal. The ACP has been awarded a US Trade and Development Agency grant to help fund a feasibility study for the project, which it is considering for when the expanded canal is opened next year and the waterway is expected to handle considerable liquefied natural gas tankers. A statement from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency says that it has awarded a grant to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to support the planning of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. When the Panama Canal expansion project is completed next year, the Canal is expected to handle significant LNG tanker traffic.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency informs it has awarded a grant to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to support the planning of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. The Panama Canal is expected to handle significant LNG tanker traffic upon completion of the canal expansion project next year. To capitalize on this growth, the ACP is interested in developing LNG-related infrastructure projects, including an import terminal. “The U.S. Government is very pleased to partner with the Panama Canal Authority through this USTDA grant as the ACP looks to develop a LNG import terminal in the coming years to take advantage of the Canal expansion project,” said Chargé d’Affaires Kevin M. O’Reilly, who signed the grant agreement along with ACP Administrator/CEO Jorge L. Quijano.

Water will start rushing into the newly expanded Panama Canal on Thursday (local time) in one area that was widened, ahead of the waterway's April 2016 re-inauguration. The area around the new Agua Fria locks in Gatun, on the Atlantic coast, will be the site of the preliminary tests, the Panama Canal Authority said. Completely filling up the first lock will take three to five months, according to the builders consortium Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC). The third set of locks is 85 % complete and the project is now focused on electro-mechanical installations laying the groundwork for finishing touches to ensue. GUPC says it will open five valves on the Atlantic side this week that will begin the flow of water into the new lock chambers.

The Egyptian government is pressing ahead with the first major expansion of the canal in almost 150 years, to allow ships to pass north and south concurrently, reports Telegraph. The Suez Canal Area Development and the Second Suez Canal Projects are the most important drivers of economic recovery in Egypt and mark a turning point for a country that has been marred by continuing instability. The project – which has been underwritten by Egyptians subscribing to around $8bn (£5.2bn) of canal investment certificates – will have a similar impact on the economy as the original route. The Egyptian public financed the new canal by investing $8.5bn in just eight days.

The final shipment of gates has arrived to the Panama Canal today for the new locks as part of the canal’s expansion project. The four gates arrived on board the Post-Panamax vessel Xia Zhi Yuan 6 owned by COSCO Ocean Shipping, after a 25-day voyage from the Port of Trieste in Italy. The four gates arrived to the temporary dock located in the Atlantic side. The final shipment included two gates to be used in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific. “Today is an historic day for the Panama and the Canal…

Crowley Maritime Corp.’s heavy lift barge 455 4 successfully delivered the first in a series of new gates for the ongoing Panama Canal expansion. Crowley is scheduled to help transport all eight of the gates involved in the Pacific side lock expansion of the Canal – a project that when coupled with the Atlantic side expansion will create a new lane of vessel traffic and double the waterway’s capacity. The 455 4 was contracted by Sarens, a Belgium-based heavy lift company, to transport the gates from Cristóbal, a port on the Atlantic side of the Canal, to Grupo Unidos por el Canal, SA’s (GUPC SA) construction dock, which was built to receive the gates on the canal’s Pacific side.

The Panama Canal Authority has advised that a new tolls structure will be introduced when the expanded Canal opens. The proposal the Authority plans to present in the coming months provides a structure that is competitive, attractive and customised to reflect advantages to clients by ship type, vessel size, utilisation level (referring to actual cargo aboard during transit), laden/ballast transits, completely or partially full transits, among other factors. The Panama Canal Authority is currently reviewing the tolls proposal, which would include the new locks. - Tolls will be established at appropriate levels to maintain the competitiveness of the Panama Canal route at all times.

A $180 million claim involving the Panama Canal's disputed $1.6 billion cost overrun is headed to arbitration court in Miami next week, canal officials said on Monday. The $180 million claim by the consortium working on the massive canal expansion project is the first of several disputed construction costs that could end up in the hands of the Miami arbitrators. The cost overrun temporarily halted work on the massive expansion project in February, and the Panama Canal Authority now says the project is on track to open in January 2016.

Arbitration to decide who will bear the Panama Canal expansion project's $1.6 billion cost overrun, a dispute that temporarily halted work earlier this year, will begin in closed-door sessions in Miami later this month, according to lawyers arguing the matter. On July 21 "both sides will submit their terms and draft procedural orders for how things will work," said Carolyn Lamm, an attorney with White & Case representing the Spanish-led construction consortium. Labor and cost disputes have plagued the effort to expand the 100-year-old canal…

After the arrival of the second set of rolling gates, the Panama Canal Expansion keeps moving forward reaching a new milestone at the Pacific side with the pouring of more than two million cubic meters of concrete, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) reported. "This is another milestone that shows the progress of various components of the Canal Expansion Project," said the Administrator of the ACP, Jorge Luis Quijano. The pouring mark of more than 2 million meters of concrete was reached this month in one of the monoliths that is on the west wall of the middle lock chamber.

FMC Commissioner William P. The Panama Canal may remake world trade patterns. To be finished in 2015, the $5-billion expansion of the Panama Canal will create a third lane accommodating mega-ships nearly three times larger than previously passable and this may significantly reduce shipping time to Asia. The expansion impacts state ports, rail lines, trucking and cargo movement from the south and east to the west. The U.S., once an importer of natural gas, could see new shale gas development, LNG projects, and the faster shipping lanes open new Asian markets.