Another delay hits Panama Canal expansion project

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has announced another delay of three months for the completion of the canal's expansion, pushing back the start of commercial transits to the fourth quarter of 2015. In its third quarter report ACP said that the delay resulted from the fact that the consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal that is building the third set of locks, will deliver the Atlantic locks on March 31, 2015 and the Pacific locks on June 30, 2015, previously scheduled for early 2015 and April 2015 respectively. “The main change for the Pacific lock is due to electromechanical works whose logistics and duration were reassessed and modified resulting in a further delay of two months,” ACP administrator Jorge Quijano told Seatrade Global. Those new dates do not include the testing trials of the locks which should take three months and put back the opening of commercial transits, originally forecast for mid-June 2015, to the last quarter of 2015. To date, 66% of the expansion programme has been completed.