Grupo Unidos News

The head of the Panama Canal Authority said on Monday a Miami-based arbitration board rejected a demand by Spanish-led GUPC consortium for $192.8 million to cover cost overruns during the building of a third set of locks for the century-old waterway. GUPC or Grupo Unidos por el Canal includes Sacyr SA of Spain, Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructura Urbana of Panama. The authority's chief executive, Jorge Quijano, announced the ruling in a post on his Facebook page. "We have been informed that we have won a major arbitration dealing with the expansion of the canal by the GUPC contractor for $192.8 million," Quijano wrote in a post.

The expansion of the Panama Canal will take traffic through the inter-oceanic passage to a new level, which already handles around 6 percent of global trade transportation, its administrator said on Saturday. With the expansion of the canal's width and depth, the volume of traffic will double, as Panamax-class vessels will now be able to pass through, carrying up to 14,000 cargo containers. Jorge Luis Quijano, administrator of the Panama Canal, said at a press conference that this expansion, which will be inaugurated on Sunday, will open up new opportunities in sectors such as logistics and ship repairs. The main contractor for the expansion was the consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) was informed by its contractor Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC) on Wednesday, June 1 that the Third Set of Locks have officially passed all performance tests and are now functionally completed to allow a safe, efficient and reliable operation of the new locks in accordance with the provisions of the contract. The ACP said it will conduct a detailed review of the submitted report in order to proceed with appropriate action and respond to the contractor, symbolizing a milestone toward the inauguration of the new lane on June 26.

The Panama Canal has announced that Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), the consortium responsible for the design and construction of the third set of locks  project, has successfully completed testing of the reinforcements in sill #3 at the new Cocoli Locks in the Pacific. GUPC technical personnel, the designers, and Panama Canal Authority (ACP) specialists monitored the testing process, which consisted of gradually raising the water behind the lock gate to the level in which the seepage was first detected in sill #3 last August. Later, the testing was inspected by a team of independent experts, professors and structural engineers from the Technological University of Panama (UTP), all of whom expressed satisfaction with the final results.

The Panama Canal has announced that Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), the consortium responsible for the design and construction of the Third Set of Locks Project, has successfully completed testing of the reinforcements in sill #3 of the Cocolí locks. GUPC technical personnel, the designers and Panama Canal Authority (ACP) specialists monitored the testing process which consisted of gradually raising the water behind the lock gate to the level in which the seepage was first detected in sill #3 last August. Later, the testing was inspected by a team of independent experts, professors and structural engineers from the Technological University of Panama (UTP), all of whom expressed satisfaction with the final results.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it has received word from Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC), the main contractor for the design and construction of the Third Set of Locks project, that work to reinforce the sills in the new locks will be completed in January 2016. GUPC informed the ACP of the deadline during a meeting Thursday, November 28, to discuss the progress being made on the reinforcements work. As part of its remaining work, GUPC will continue conducting inspections and reinforcements of each individual sill. Afterward, GUPC plans to continue the electromechanical testing on the filling and emptying systems of the new locks. The ACP was also informed by GUPC that they have not yet identified a date for the completion of the new locks project.

The consortium in charge of the expansion of the Panama Canal, led by Sacyr reported that the fissures presented in the third set of locks will not delay the opening date scheduled for April 2016. The Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), comprising the Sacyr Spanish and Italian Salini Impregilo, informed  Autoridfad Panama Canal (ACP), the authority that manages the waterway, that is repairing the gaps in the walls of the locks caused by lack of steel reinforcement, and ensure other structures preventively. "Cracks were detected in one of the walls," said a spokeswoman for the Spanish construction group Sacyr, lead member of the Grupo Unidos Por el Canal consortium responsible for the expansion project. The fissures were found on the canal's Pacific Locks, the spokeswoman added.

The seepage found in the Panama Canal’s third set of locks is said to be the result of an inadequate amount of steel reinforcement, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced today. ACP said it was informed by the contractor responsible for the design and construction of the locks, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC), that the localized seepage found in the concrete sill between the lower and middle chamber of the canal’s expanded Pacific Locks was caused by insufficient steel reinforcement in the area under stress from condition testing.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) expressed its satisfaction after the main contractor for the Third Set of Locks Project, Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), and the National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries (SUNTRACS) reached an agreement which supersedes the strike call in the new locks’ construction site in both the Atlantic and the Pacific sides. The ACP expects this agreement marks the continuation of a harmonious relationship between both parties, and thus the completion of the work as it is scheduled, which has now reached 93 percent completion.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) issued a press release stating it has learned of a National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries (SUNTRACS) notice to strike issued to Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), the main contractor for the Canal's third set of locks project, which is currently 93 percent complete. The ACP said it is deeply concerned about the situation and is closely following its developments as the authority’s business may be directly impacted if work is not carried out to deliver the project on time. The ACP said it has therefore encouraged both sides to reach an agreement on matters that, by law, only pertain to dealings between GUPC and SUNTRACS members.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has learned of the National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries (SUNTRACS) notice to strike issued to Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC). GUPC is the main contractor for the Canal's third set of locks project, which is currently 93 percent complete. The ACP has repeatedly appealed to both sides to reach an agreement on matters that, by law, only pertain to dealings between GUPC and SUNTRACS members. The ACP, although the ultimate owner of the project, is in no way responsible for labor issues arising from any failure on the part of GUPC to meet labor demands by its subcontractors. On the contrary…

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.

Power management company Eaton has been awarded an additional $5.2-million contract to provide critical installation services for the Panama Canal Expansion Program. Eaton’s contract was awarded by Grupo Unidos por el Canal, SA (GUPC), the contractor responsible for the design and construction of the third set of locks of the expansion program under contract to the Panama Canal Authority. The expansion project is expected to be completed by the end of 2015 and operational in early 2016. Eaton has a decades-long history as a provider of power distribution products and solutions to the Panama Canal, including support for electrical system design and construction in 2011.

As it enters the final stretch of a massive expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on an even more ambitious project worth up to $17 billion that would allow it to handle the world's biggest ships. Workers are now installing giant, 22-story lock gates to accommodate larger "Post-Panamax" ships through the Canal, one of the world's busiest maritime routes. The project involves building a third set of locks on the Canal. It is being headed by Italy's Salini Impregilo  and Spain's Sacyr, and should open on April 1, 2016.

The widened Panama Canal is expected to finally be up and running in April 2016, after months of delays and cost overruns, AFP reports. The expansion project area will allow bigger ships to transit, with two new sets of locks, one on the Pacific side and one on the Atlantic side. Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC) is carrying out the extensive upgrade to the canal's system of locks, to allow the waterway to accommodate ships carrying up to 14,000 containers of freight - triple the current size. The new shipping lane will be much wider, allowing larger vessels, including liquefied natural gas carriers, to pass through. For the last 100 years…

Widening the Panama Canal will cost more than budgeted due to billions of dollars in overruns by the consortium carrying out the work says a report from AFP. The canal's administrator Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), which is overseeing upgrades to the canal's locks, has incurred overruns totaling as $2.39 billion. The expansion had been forecast to cost $5.25 billion. The expansion project, begun in 2007, was initially scheduled for completion in 2014. But the project's due date has been pushed back to early 2016. The expansion project consists of a new lane for shipping traffic that will have a total of 16 floodgates, eight on the Pacific Ocean side and eight on the Atlantic side.

The consortium working on the extensive Panama Canal expansion has submitted two new claims for cost overruns of almost $740 million, the canal administrator said on Friday. A dispute between the canal and the consortium over cost overruns temporarily halted work on the expansion earlier this year and arguments over the project are now being heard in an arbitration court in Miami. The consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, formed by Spain's Sacyr, Italy's Salini Impregilo, Belgium's Jan de Nul as well as the Panamanian company CUSA, has now presented a total of about $2.3 billion in claims for overruns, said Panama Canal Authority administrator Jorge Quijano. "We're not taking these claims at face value," said Quijano.

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.

Construction workers in Panama ended a nationwide strike on Thursday, allowing the expansion of its famous canal to resume after a delay of more than two weeks. "Work has partially resumed today ... it is estimated staff as a whole will gradually return in the coming days," Grupo Unidos por el Canal, the consortium expanding the waterway, said in a statement. The consortium, led by Spain's Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impreglio, declined to say whether the December 2015 target date for its completion would be pushed back.

In another step forward for the Panama Canal Expansion Program, the second shipment of four rolling gates for the Third Set of Locks arrived today from port of Trieste, Italy to the waterway's Atlantic side on board the semi-submersible heavy lift vessel Sun Rise. "This is another milestone as it completes half of the 16 gates that will be used in the new locks", said the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, Jorge Luis Quijano. Following a nearly one-month long journey, the ship completed its second trip that began in mid-May in the Port of Trieste, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Differing from the first shipment, these gates have two different dimensions, according to their final position in the lock chambers.

The four gates arrived Sunday on board the Post-Panamax vessel Xia Zhi Yuan 6 owned by COSCO Ocean Shipping. The shipment began its journey from Trieste, Italy on August 17 before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to reach the entrance of the Panama Canal, where they will be unloaded onto a special temporary dock. Only one shipment is left to receive all 16 gates required for the Third Set of Locks project. These gates will be used in the new locks at the Pacific side of the Canal. Two of the gates are 57.6 m long, 10 m wide and 31.92 m high, and weigh 4,163 tons each.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said that Grupo Unidos por el Canal. S.A. (GUPC) has resumed work on the new locks project during the afternoon of Thursday, February 20. “Works have restarted this afternoon,” said Panama Canal Administrator Jorge L. Quijano. Since works have resumed, ACP will proceed to pay tomorrow GUPC the $36.8 million due for December invoices. This preliminary agreement to resume works does not imply a negotiation on the alleged cost overruns claimed by the contractor. ACP reiterates that these claims must be process through the mechanisms within the contract.

The agreement between the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and Grupo Unidos por el Canal. S.A. (GUPC) took effect Thursday, March 20 after signature by all involved parties. As announced by the ACP on February 27, the agreement falls within the terms of the contract for the design and construction of the third set of locks and does not include any payment for claims. GUPC's claims must be processed through the mechanisms within the contract. The contractor finishes the works in December 2015. The contractor will deliver in Panama the 12 lock gates currently in Italy by February 2015.