The head of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said on Wednesday that the long-awaited expansion of the great commercial waterway will be complete by the end of June, according to Reuters.
Jorge Quinan said that is when the new set of locks, central to the expansion project, will be ready after delays caused by cracks and leaks appearing in the concrete in August.
The international consortium GUPC, which is responsible for the new locks, had been at loggerheads with the ACP over payments and the pace of progress on the work.
In January Panama’s national president Juan Carlos Varela had said he expected the $5.3bn project to be finished by May. Previous deadlines of December 2014 and April this year have also had to be extended.
Expansion will allow the Canal to accommodate post-Panamax vessels with three times the cargo-handling capacity of present.
