Hvis ikke kanalmyndigheden som bygherre stiller med et milliardbeløb, som konsortiet mener, det har til gode, risikerer det enorme anlægsbyggeri at blive yderligere forsinket eller gå helt i stå – udvidelsen skal sætte den berømte søfartsvej i stand til at tage langt større containerskibe.
A Spanish-led consortium Wednesday threatened to halt a massive expansion of the Panama Canal, which handles five per cent of world maritime trade, because of a row over cost overruns, report BBC online and Gulf Times.
Spanish builder Sacyr, leader of the Grupo Unidos por el Canal consortium, said work will stop unless the canal pays 1,6 billion US dollar (ca. 8,8 milliarder DKR) in cost overruns for work on the 80 km waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The consortium said it had set the canal authorities a 21-day deadline before suspending its 3,2 billion dollar contract to expand the capacity of the canal, notably by installing a third set of canal locks (sluser).
The overall cost of the Panama Canal expansion project has been estimated at 5,2 billion dollar.
“There are many and varied unforeseen costs which came up during these gigantic works,” a Sacyr spokesman said.
“They are technical matters, questions over cement ingredients, geotechnical matters, geological questions, taxes matters, financial matters, labour issues and weather conditions,” he said.
It began work on a third set of locks for the canal in 2009 and expects to complete construction in June 2015, already a nine-month delay over the date set in the contract.
The new locks will accommodate larger ships with a capacity of 12.000 containers -instead of those with 5.000 containers that are now able to navigate the canal (Mærsk har for længst opgivet kanalen, red.).
Some 13.000 to 14.000 ships navigate the canal each year.
According to the canal authority, there was a delay of four months shortly after the project began to reverse a GUPC plan to use lower-quality cement.
The canal uses a system of locks to raise ships from sea level and enable them to sail through the continental divide.
