New Panama Canal will open in April 2015

Originally scheduled for October 2014, the inauguration of the expanded Panama Canal is going to be delayed “due to problems in the quality of concrete utilized, among other reasons,” as stated in official sources.

Jorge Luis Quijano, Administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), has confirmed that construction of the third set of locks on the waterway will conclude in April 2015, undoubtedly due to the delays the public works has suffered.

Quijano indicated to the local press that “we had planned to receive the completed project in October 2014, but by our best current estimates, based on the progress thus far, we could be commercially active by mid-2015.”

The project is about seven months behind schedule because the ACP rejected the concrete mix on several occasions, leading to an obligatory delay in the start of construction.

For this reason, Grupos Unidos por el Canal, the consortium responsible for the project, submitted a claim for $573 million dollars to the ACP in July 2012.