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A core sample pulled from the concrete of the Cocoli Locks where cracks and leaks have appeared does not bode well for the Panama Canal expansion project, which is on a strict deadline for completion in April 2016. The crack and subsequent leaks appeared recently in the concrete of one of the interior chambers of the new Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side of the waterway during testing of the new locks.

HOUSTON — Panama is well positioned to serve as a distribution hub for the liquefied natural gas that will power Central America in the future, the country’s officials told attendees at Houston’s Offshore Technology Conference on Tuesday morning. The biggest advantage the country has is its namesake canal, an overseas shortcut linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, panelists said at the breakfast talk. The canal is currently too small to handle LNG tankers, but a multi-billion dollar expansion is in the works that will allow all but the largest gas-carrying ships to pass. The massive construction project was interrupted by...

On the face of it, America has little to fear from China's new deal to upgrade Cuba's power grid. The countries are already firm allies via their Communist leaders, Havana is under a diplomatic and economic embargo from Washington, and all efforts to mend ties between the two ended when Obama left office. But scratch the surface and what emerges is a picture of Chinese economic dominance in America's backyard that would be enough give any president sleepless nights. In fact, the deal with Cuba - signed this week as part of China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative - is...

The expansion of the Panama Canal, a $5.3 billion project almost two years behind schedule and plagued by cost overruns and contractor disputes, is expected to open by the end of June, according to the agency that operates the waterway. The Panama Canal Authority has resolved problems associated with contractors and seepage from the new locks discovered during testing, said Jose Ramon Arango, senior international trade specialist at the agency that operates the 50-mile (77- kilometer) waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The authority is planning a test of the new locks with a tanker in May...

A delayed opening of the Panama Canal expansion past the April 2016 deadline is looking more and more likely as 2015 comes to a close and work continues to repair a crack that formed in one of the new lock complexes. Panama Canal Authority (ACP) Administrator Jorge Quijano gave an update on the expansion project at an industry event in Panama City on Friday, telling attendees that the project now stands at 96% complete and assuring that delivery is still expected in the second quarter of 2016, even though a final date remains to be determined.

A core sample pulled from the concrete of the Cocoli Locks where cracks and leaks have appeared does not bode well for the Panama Canal expansion project, which is on a strict deadline for completion in April 2016.

More than four years ago, when Panama awarded the lucrative contract to expand its inter-oceanic canal to a mostly European consortium, the United States was not pleased. An American company whose bid was unsuccessful, Bechtel, thought the winning tender would barely pay for pouring the concrete and that the consortium would probably try to renegotiate the price at some stage during the construction process. Some might argue that those American doubts have been justified, especially in view of the ongoing economic row between the European consortium and the Panamanian government agency that runs the waterway. The spat has threatened to...

PANAMA CANAL'S LESSON: U.S. MUST BUILD BRIDGES, NOT FENCES --- LA LECCION DEL CANAL DE PANAMA Last weekend's decision by Panama to embark on a $5.2 billion expansion of the Panama Canal should teach a lesson to the new crowd of U.S. Latin America bashers -- often disguised as immigration control advocates on cable television networks -- about how wrong their predecessors were in one of Washington's biggest debates over Latin America ever. I'm talking about the 1977 Panama Canal treaties, which turned over full control of the canal to Panama in 2000. Read the full column here, and...

Free Trade: If there was ever a referendum the whole world could celebrate, it might be Panama's huge canal expansion, expected to pass on Sunday. From Boston to Singapore, rarely have so many stood to gain so much. When Panama's 1.7 million voters hit the "yes" button for the $5.3 billion canal expansion, they'll put their fingers on a pivotal point that changes the course of history. President Martin Torrijos called the canal's biggest upgrade since its 1914 completion "vital" to his nation and energetically persuaded his cost-conscious countrymen to approve it. .... Panamanians were skeptical at first, but now...

PANAMA CITY, Oct 20, 2006 (AFP) - The Panama Canal is set for a major overhaul if voters Sunday approve a 5.25-billion-dollar plan to widen the strategic waterway to accommodate modern mega-ships. Proponents say the canal will reach capacity in 2012 and that its expansion is critical in the face of competition from other maritime routes. The government says the work would be financed by a hike in tolls, worth 1.2 billion dollars in 2005. Polls predict a victory of more than 70 percent in favor of the expansion in Sunday's referendum. "We are optimistic," said Rodolfo Sabonge, the director...

PANAMA CITY, Sep 30 (IPS) - On Oct. 22, Panamanians will head to the polls in a referendum to decide the future and possible expansion of the Panama Canal, the main economic driver of this country of three million people. The canal is expected to generate 1.4 billion dollars in the 2006 fiscal year, of which 560 million will go to the state coffers. According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the proposed expansion would increase these revenues to 6.23 billion dollars by 2025, boosting treasury contributions to up to 4.19 billion. If to this year's 560 million are added...

PANAMA will hold a referendum in three weeks to decide whether the Panama Canal will be expanded. However, Enrique Sanchez, manager of the Contracting Division of the Panama Canal Authority said yesterday that polls conducted across the Central American country, have shown overwhelming support for its expansion. If the project gets the green-light, it will be self financed at an estimated cost of US$5.25 billion. Gross revenue generated by the Canal for fiscal 2005/6 (fiscal year ends September 30, 2006), reached US$1.4 billion, with the Panamanian Government netting approximately US$600 million of that figure. "The Panama Canal has turned out...

This view is expressed in a new study that has forecast North American container port demand nearly double in 10 years with most pressure falling on Pacific Coast ports. UK-based Ocean Shipping Consultants predicts demand to increase by up to 85 per cent to 85.7m TEU over 2005-15, and by a further 31 percent to 112.3m TEU over 2015-20. Even an increased-risk/protectionist scenario, incorporating a significant downturn in GDP expansion over 2011-15, would yield a container port demand increase of 55 percent to 71.8m TEU over 2005-15, with 25 percent growth over 2015-20, to 89.7m TEU In its report Containerport...

Panama is planning to build a deeper, wider Panama Canal to allow Communist Chinese super-containerships carrying cheap 21st century slave-labor under-market goods to have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and key NAFTA/CAFTA ports such as Miami. In the shipping industry, Panamex container ships are defined as those that are able to fit through the 1,000-foot long and 110-foot wide canal. Typically, Panamex containerships were designed to carry 4,500 TEU (“Twenty Foot Units,” the length measurement of the standard ocean steel container). The first generation of post-Panamex container ships was built to carry up to 9,800 TEU. Today, a...

The Panama Canal, one of the major shipping routes through which 40 percent of container goods sold in America travels, currently has a 21-day wait time for ships attempting to make the passage. And the situation will only get worse before it gets better. The number of vessels waiting to sneak between North and South America currently stands at 154. The traffic jam is thanks to a severe drought that has afflicted the area since this Spring. About $270 billion in cargo travels through the canal every year... snip Not only are reservations for making it through the canal cut...

Panama City (AFP) – The drought-hit Panama Canal will maintain restrictions on the passage of ships for one year, a measure that has already led to a marine traffic jam as boats line up to enter the waterway linking two oceans. The canal is facing a shortage of rainwater needed to transfer ships through locks that function like water elevators, an engineering marvel that moves six percent of the world's maritime commerce up and over the isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal's sub-administrator Ilya Espino, told AFP that unless heavy rains fall in the next three months,...

John Hay was President Lincoln's personal secretary, a position that began nearly five decades of public service. A diplomat who served multiple Administrations from Lincoln to Roosevelt, he was a central figure in defining the U.S. foreign policy that would be the basis of the United States role on the world stage in the twentieth century.This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for...

David McCullough, who was known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America’s past, died on Sunday at home in Hingham Mass. He was 89. The death was confirmed by his daughter Dorie Lawson. Mr. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, “Truman” (1992) and “John Adams” (2001). He received National Book Awards for “The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal” (1977) and “Mornings on Horseback” (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family. Deep...

The girl of the Noriega General named with the consulate from Panama in Miami PANAMA - One of the girls of the former strong man of Panama, the Manual General Noriega, was named as diplomat with the consulate from Panama in Miami, announced the minister panaméen Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis. His/her father is imprisoned there since 1990. Sandra Noriega "is a qualified person who has the right to serve her country", affirmed Friday the minister. The father of the diplomat directed Panama of 1981 to 1989, after death in an air crash of the president panaméen Omar Torrijos, father...