After several delays resulting from worker disputes to a dire-looking leak in the new locks, the Panamanian President has said the Panama Canal Expansion Project will be completed in May of this year.

Panama Canal Expansion. Photo by Keith Yahl (CC 2.0)

 

Yahoo UK News: Panama’s expansion of its century-old canal, which has suffered costly overruns and major delays, is now to be complete “around the month of May,” President Juan Carlos Varela said Saturday.

The leader, speaking in an address to the nation, also urged the Spanish-led consortium behind the project to leave legal disputes to the “competent authorities” and focus on completing its work on the waterway.

A 3rd set of locks are being added to the Panama Canal System. Photo by Biberbaer (PD)

 

The consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal de Panama, started the expansion work on the canal in 2007. The project is well behind schedule.

The extensions were originally meant to have been completed in October 2014 but were then pushed back to an April 2016 deadline. Varela’s announcement indicated that may have slipped again, to May this year. Read more from Yahoo UK News here…

Posted by Mai Armstrong for the Working Harbor Committee