The opening of a newly expanded Panama Canal, previously scheduled for April, will be postponed due to cracks detected in the new set of locks that are the centerpiece of the $5.25 billion overhaul, EFE quotes Panama Canal Authority (ACP) head Jorge Quijano as saying.
The interoceanic waterway agency was still planning for the inauguration to occur during the second quarter of 2016 and no later than June.
Under the new timetable, the GUPC consortium that is carrying out the expansion will begin navigation tests in April, Quijano said in statements to business leaders that the ACP forwarded to EFE. "We moved it to April due to these problems we had," the administrator said.
The GUPC, led by Spanish construction giant Sacyr Vallehermoso, ordered extra steel reinforcement of the locks after water leaks were visible in August in one of the new lock heads on the Pacific side. The consortium said that repair work would be completed by Jan. 15.
The expansion, which was approved by Panama’s National Assembly earlier this year, is scheduled to be made operational in the first half of 2017.
The inauguration of the expanded waterway was initially scheduled for October 2014 but has been postponed due to, among other reasons, work stoppages and a contractual dispute between the ACP and the GUPC.
The 80-kilometer (50-mile) inter-oceanic waterway, which was under U.S. control from 1904 until Dec. 31, 1999, currently handles nearly 6 percent of global trade.