The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has reached an agreement with the locks project contractor consortium Grupo Unidos por El Canal (GUPC), Silvia de Marucci, ACP's marketing and forecasting manager, announced March 7. ACP intends to sign the final agreement within a week.
This is a followup to the preliminary conceptual agreement made on February 27 which provides that:
- The construction of the third set of locks is completed by December 2015.
- The 12 lock gates in Italy must be in Panama by December 2014, to be transported in staggered shipments.
- The Performance Bond for $400 million may only be released to Zurich North America, to obtain financing to complete the work.
- GUPC will pay $100 million and ACP will advance $100 million, which will enable works to regain a normal pace in March.
- The moratorium for the repayment of advances may be extended until 2018, subject to fulfillment of certain milestones and other conditions.
According to ACP, “the price of the contract remains the same and is not modified by this agreement.”
Several weeks of delays have pushed the expected operational date for the new canal to January 2016. This is about six months later than the previously scheduled June 2015 completion date.
The overall expansion project, of which the consortium is building the lion's share, was originally expected to cost about $5.25 billion, but the overruns could increase that to nearly $7 billion, according to Reuters.
The Spanish-led consortium GUPC is formed by Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A (Spain), Impregilo, S.p.A. (Italy), Jan de Nul Group (Belgium) and Constructora Urbana, S.A. (CUSA) (Panama).
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