Posted on 12/26/2014 3:41:58 PM PST by george76
The consortium building the third set of locks for the Panama Canal is making fresh claims for cost overruns totaling $737 million
...
Work began in 2007 to expand the canal with a third set of locks to enable it to handle the modern mega-freighters that global shipping companies prefer.
But the $5.25 billion project has been plagued by delays, strikes and a bitter dispute over $1.6 billion in cost overruns with the consortium carrying out the upgrade, led by Spanish construction firm Sacyr.
Initially scheduled for completion in 2014, the project's due date has been pushed back to early 2016.
Nearby Nicaragua, meanwhile, launched construction this week on a rival canal, a $50 billion project that the Chinese firm behind it plans to complete in five years
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
And why did the LIB/DIM carter give the Canal to Panama? LIBs/DIMs are mentally disturbed.
I thought China was running it.
Obama will bail them out if they agree to send us a few million of their uneducated poor people.
--half of the lock gates were on site but the others were presumably still in Italy , not to be shipped until payment received for the first group---
Yes, but the peanut-brain carter gave ownership to Panama.
Led too by mainline Republicans like Howard Baker of Tennessee...”Panama Howie”.
I wonder what the Chinese attitude towards cost overruns is?
Just went through the canal and saw a set of gates awaiting installation (or at least that’s what our guide said). Also visited Nicaragra and was told about the canal but that not one worker has been hired. Major hurdle is an environmental study concerning the large freshwater lake they plan to use. With fresh water becoming a scarce commodity, I can’t envision a new canal without an expensive pump/water retention setup. Guide in Costa Rica said there is a land dispute with Nicaragra over a portion of the new canal route and that courts had already sided with Costa Rica so I don’t expect the new canal anytime soon.
Seems to me that a perfect shovel ready public works job would be an American Canal from Brownsville Texas to Imperial Beach California, with a militarized zone on both sides of the canal just this side of the southern boarder.
China does not run the canal.
I think when you have a cost over-run the company should eat some of that or all of it.
China really wants a much wider canal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valemax
These ore ships carry ore from Brazil to China, they are much too big for the Panama Canal. I think these things are longer and wider than an aircraft carrier!
—I suspect those were the same gates I saw last year-—
Just wait until the cost overruns for the Nicaragua canal start to add up. Daniel Ortega will be pooping in his pants but then maybe not as it appears the Chinese are taking responsibility for building the canal in return for owning it 100% when complete. Oh, I forgot that those generous Chinese will give Nicaragua ownership at the rate of 1% per year of operation.
What is the cost for a small boat such as yours to traverse the canal?
Ten years ago, we went through the canal on a cruise ship, and part of the info the guide reported was that in the '20s (I think), some guy swam the entire distance. Since the fee was based on weight, they charged him 36c.
“China does not run the canal.”
They don’t need to as they are building their own in Nicaragua.
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