Bids Submitted for Panama Canal Dredging

Six companies submitted bids June 1 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.

COMPANY    BID PRICE
Dredging International    $ 39,983,822.82
China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC)    $ 67,377,423.00
Boskalis International    $ 85,500,207.49
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock    $ 72,392,354.34
Van Oord    $ 97,998.256.97
Jan De Nul    $ 57,856,939.00