Panama Canal Authority
On 4 April 2008 the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) awarded the contract to dredge the Pacific sea entrance of the Panama Canal to DEME operating company Dredging International. The USD177.5 million project widened the Canal's 14 km approach-, access- and navigation channels to a minimum of 218m and deepened them to a maximum level of minus 15.5m. DEME removed a total of 9.07 million m3, including an important volume of hard rock that was broken up with drilling and blasting. Dredging operations took place in the midst of transiting traffic and close to the intensive port activity at Baldoa and Rodman. A follow-on contract involved dredging and deepening at the Rodman quay of PSA Panama International Terminal. In the frame of ACP's Fresh Water Dredging and Excavation Project for the Canal Expansion, Panama Canal Authority further awarded a US$40 million contract to DEME for widening and deepening the existing navigational channel by dredging some 4.6 million m3 in the northernmost reaches of the Gatun Lake.