BIDS SUBMITTED FOR PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION PROJECT DREDGING CONTRACT

News Release Panama Canal Authority June 4, 2010

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<DIV>SIX COMPANIES COMPETING TO DREDGE GATUN
LAKE
 
PANAMA CITY, Panama, June 1, 2010 – Six
companies submitted bids today to dredge an area of the Panama Canal’s manmade
body of water, Gatun Lake. The ACP will now analyze the technical and financial
submissions and award the contract to the firm with the lowest-priced bid that
meets the requirements stated in the request for proposal. 
 
The primary element
within the scope of work for this contract is to widen and deepen the existing
navigational channel by dredging approximately 4.6 million cubic meters in the
northern most reaches of the Lake. This contract is one
component within the ACP’s Fresh Water Dredging and Excavation Project for the
Canal Expansion, which includes the dredging and/or excavation of about 30
million cubic meters in Gatun Lake and the Gaillard Cut (the narrowest stretch
of the Panama Canal).
 
The ACP will do most
of the 30 million cubic meters of dredging and excavation within the Fresh Water
Dredging and Excavation Project using its own resources, while contracting
portions of the project, such as the area included in this contract in Gatun
Lake. The ACP has also published another tender for the excavation and dredging
of about 3.8 million cubic meters near the Gaillard Cut at the entrance of the
new Pacific Locks Access Channel. The ACP expects to receive bids for this
contract July 16, 2010.
 
Gatun Lake
spans 163 square miles and is essential to
the operation of the Canal. At the time of its creation in 1910, during the
Canal’s original construction, Gatun Lake was the largest manmade lake in the
world. 
 
Over the course of
the coming days, the ACP will review the documents submitted to verify the
company’s experience, technical capacity, financial strength and bonding before
awarding the contract. 
 
Below are the
companies that submitted bids and the corresponding bid prices in U.S. dollars.

 
 
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COMPANY</TD>
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BID
PRICE</TD></TR>
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Dredging
International</TD>
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$
39,983,822.82</TD></TR>
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China
Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC)</TD>
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$
67,377,423.00</TD></TR>
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Boskalis
International</TD>
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$ 85,500,207.49</TD></TR>
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Great Lakes Dredge & Dock</TD>
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$ 72,392,354.34</TD></TR>
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Van Oord</TD>
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$
97,998.256.97</TD></TR>
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Jan De Nul</TD>
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$
57,856,939.00</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
 
“We greatly
appreciate the interest received from these highly qualified global companies –
today’s bid opening is an important step forward in the waterway’s historic
expansion. The Gatun Lake dredging project is vital to ensure that larger, wider
ships can reach the new Atlantic locks,” said ACP Executive Vice President of
Engineering and Program Management Jorge L. Quijano. “Keeping with the Expansion
Program momentum, we look forward to awarding the contract to the winning firm
in the coming weeks.”
 
Expansion will build
a new lane of traffic along the Panama Canal through the construction of a new
set of locks which will double capacity and allow more traffic and longer, wider
ships.
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