Work on the expansion of the Panama Canal is reportedly resuming

Panama - A consortium of construction companies led by the Spanish company Sacyr has announced that it is resuming work on the expansion of the Panama Canal. Work had been blocked two weeks ago due to disputes over additional costs of $1.6 billion (approximately 32 billion CZK). This was reported today by the AP agency.
The construction companies have begun preparations to facilitate a swift return to full-scale work, the consortium stated according to AP. However, it did not specify how the financial dispute was resolved.
The disputes erupted after the consortium of construction companies demanded earlier this month that the Panamanian government cover additional costs exceeding $1.6 billion. Panama refused.
Jorge Quijano, the head of the Panama Canal Authority (PCA), said last week that the warring parties had reached a preliminary agreement. However, he noted that there were still contentious points that needed to be settled.
Approximately five percent of the world's maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, but the capacity of the century-old structure is no longer sufficient. The PCA announced a competition for the expansion of the canal in 2009, which was won by a consortium of companies led by the Spanish company Sacyr. The winning bid was $3.2 billion, significantly lower than what competitors offered and below the PCA's own estimate of $3.8 billion.
At the turn of the year, Sacyr claimed that it received inaccurate information from the PCA regarding various construction-related matters and that costs had unpredictably increased. Critics accuse the Spaniards of having allegedly known at the time of the competition that they could not complete the project for the offered price.