Expanded Panama Canal to be Operational by April 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, the original two lanes have provided vessels a shorter route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but the need to expand has been evident for quite some time, said Ilya Marotta, executive vice president of engineering and program management for the Panama Canal.
Upgrades began in 2007 and were scheduled to be completed in 2014 for the 100th anniversary of the canal, but the work has seen repeated delays.
Marotta, who has worked for the canal for 30 years, said about 10,000 workers are helping build the new lane, but only about 200-250 new jobs will be added once construction is complete. The canal's original lanes will continue to operate as they always have.
GUPC now says final testing on 16 new locks will begin in June, and that finishing touches on the construction work would be complete by January next year, Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano told AFP.
Initially projected to cost $5.25 billion, the project was reported in January to have incurred an extra $2.39 billion in overruns. GUPC includes an Italian, Belgian, Spanish and Panamanian company.
