Delay in expansion costing Canal $450 million
MISSING the original completion date for the Panama Canal expansion project is expected to cost the Canal Authority(ACP) the loss of at least $450 million in anticipated revenue.
The project was supposed to be finished in October 2014, but the new opening date is April 2016.
The Authority has projected a loss of $1 million per day for the delay.
Despite the recent leaks that were discovered in the Pacific locks, the contractor GUPC said that the project is still on track to be ready next April “after seven years involving more than 100 million hours of work.”
The contract was awarded to GUPC for $3.1 billion. And was supposed to be finished in 1,883 days.
The consortium has presented more than 10 claims to increase the amount of money it will receive. The claims are in various stages of resolution.
In January, a dispute resolution board granted the contractor a partial payment of $233 million and allowed it 176 additional days to deliver the work.
If that claim is upheld, it would still mean the project is delayed 350 days.
The contract includes a penalty of $300,000 for each day the project is delayed. ACP Administrator Jorge Luis Quijano said that any penalties will be resolved after the project is completed reports La Prensa.
“It will be handled by our attorneys, but we are being economically affected by the delays,” he said.
