Tag Archives: Panamax

Authority assures that Panama Canal widening will be completed

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By Tom Stieghorst

The Panama Canal Authority has reaffirmed its intent to finish its expansion project by mid-2015, despite a payment dispute with contractors.

A consortium led by Spanish construction company Sacyr threatened last week to suspend work on Jan. 20 if the Panama Canal Authority did not pay for $1.6 billion in cost overruns.

In a statement, the authority said its contract includes guarantees that will allow the completion of the new locks, even if it needs to step in to assume control of the project.

The authority stressed that the dispute relates only to the expansion and is not affecting current operations.

The $5.25 billion widening project will allow for longer, deeper ships to pass through the canal, which was built in 1914. The project is 72% done, the authority said.

According to Agence France-Presse, the Spanish government has begun mediating the dispute, and the Spanish minister of public works flew to Panama on Monday to talk to both sides.

Grupo Unidos por el Canal blames the cost overrun on faulty geological studies done by the authority.

In its statement, the authority said the arguments raised by Grupo “lack legal basis, are not clear and do not give any reasons for the contractor to suspend the work.”

Carnival to build new Barcelona cruise terminal

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Carnival to build new Barcelona cruise terminal

By Tom Stieghorst
Carnival Corp. and the port of Barcelona reached an agreement on the construction of a new $27 million cruise terminal that will handle post-Panamax sized ships.

The terminal will be about 107,000 square feet, large enough to accommodate 4,500 people. It is expected to open in 2016.

Carnival already operates a terminal at the port, which will be expanded by about 14,000 square feet. Both terminals are on the Adossat Wharf.

Carnival will invest the $27 million and run the terminal as a concession. The port will invest about $2.7 million on roads and other infrastructure and about $2 million on signage.

Barcelona is the fourth-busiest cruise port in the world, with an estimated passenger volume of 2.6 million passengers this year.

Post-Panamax ships

Post-Panamax or over-Panamax denote ships larger than Panamax that do not fit in the canal, such as supertankers and the largest modern container ships. The “largest oil tanker in the world”—whichever ship held the title at the time—has not been able to transit the Panama Canal at least since the Idemitsu Maru was launched in the 1960s; it carried about 150,000 deadweight tons. All US Navy aircraft carriers since USS Midway have been in the post-Panamax class