Cracks Put April 2016 Delivery of Panama Canal Expansion At Risk

PANAMA CITY, Sept 22 (Reuters) – The opening of a newly expanded Panama Canal may very well be delayed after cracks have been detected within the concrete partitions of one of many locks final month, the waterway’s deputy administrator mentioned on Tuesday.

Manuel Benitez, of the Panama Canal Authority, advised Reuters “it is likely,” when requested if there was a threat of delay.

SEE ALSO: A Concrete Sample Was Pulled from the New Panama Canal Locks and It Does Not Look Good

He added that he was ready for an replace from the consortium dealing with the multi-billion growth earlier than figuring out whether or not the revamped canal could be completed and open for enterprise by April of subsequent yr.

“Everything depends on the contractor,” he mentioned.

“What we dont want is to speed this thing up if the result is not up to the quality (required),” he added.

Benitez didn’t elaborate when requested what kind of delay the venture, which is being headed by Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Spain’s Sacyr, might face.

The Panama Canal’s present growth plan was initially set at $5.25 billion however the prices rose and the administrator grew to become locked in a dispute with constructing consortium Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC), which constructed the third set of locks.

The canal authority is at the moment on a roadshow within the United States and Europe concerning a potential bond difficulty for as much as $450 million to assist finance the venture.

The canals administrator, Jorge Quijano, advised Reuters earlier this yr that he was now setting his sights on an much more formidable venture value as much as $17 billion that might permit the waterway to deal with the world’s greatest ships, by way of one more even bigger set of locks.

(Reporting by Simon Gardner and Elida Moreno; Editing by Tom Brown)