Dredging International of Belgium has confirmed that it has been awarded the contract to widen and deepen the Panama Canal. Notification of the contract was given by the Audoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP), and will secure work for the next four years.
The upgrading of the Panama Canal will significantly enhance international trade and navigation (post Panamax vessels), and will include construction of two major complexes of maritime locks, the design of which was developed in the past months by Belgian engineering firms.Dredging International also confirmed that the contract is worth some US$177.5m and will require a variety of specialised plant including oceangoing heavy rock cutter suction dredgers, trailing hopper dredgers, large backhoe dredgers, and very advanced self propelled pontoons for drilling and blasting.
The contract calls for the widening and deepening of the existing canal, as well as the construction of the Pacific entrance and south approach channel to the third set of locks on the Panama Canal. More specifically, a 14.2km stretch of the canal will be widened to a minimum breadth of 225m and a minimum depth of 15.1m.
Dredging International will remove a total of 9.07 million m³ of material. The hard rock encountered will be drilled and blasted. The Panama canal subsoil is notoriously hard, as is well known from its construction history.
