Caribbean & Central America - August 2013 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Canal budget presented. On 16 July Panama’s executive approved the US$2.4bn budget for fiscal year 2014 (1 October 2013-30 September 2014) for the Panama Canal, a 1.58% increase on the previous budget. The budget now goes to the national assembly for final ratification. According to a report published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) on 25 July, the US$5.2bn Panama Canal expansion project is now 60.4% complete since work began in 2007. The report cites as important milestones the fact that “both entrances of the Panama Canal are ready for bigger ships, since the deepening and widening of the Atlantic and Pacific access channels have been completed. The dredging of Gatun Lake is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The Pacific access channel has reached the design depth and the dam that will divide the new channel from Miraflores Lake is under construction. The third set of locks project registers 50 percent progress. The new lock complexes in the Pacific and Atlantic sides will feature three chambers, three water-saving basins per chamber, a lateral filling and emptying system and rolling gates”. The report also notes that the first four new lock gates, which have been constructed in Italy, are due to arrive this month. Each one of the 16 gates required will weigh an average of 3,300 tons. Currently six months behind its eight-year project schedule, the ACP anticipates that commercial transits through the newly expanded Canal will begin in mid-2015.

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