ACP to decide on best bidder

PANAMA. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) will award the biggest contract of its $5. 25 billion lock expansion project on Wednesday.

The award for the design and construction of the third set of locks will be based on the technical evaluation of the bids received earlier this year and the bid price. Experts have been reviewing the technical aspects of each of the bids of three consortia since March.

On Wednesday, ACP officials will announce the points awarded in the technical evaluation, which will equal 55 percent of the overall grade received.

The bid prices have been kept secret and are still sealed in a vault in the National Bank. Following the announcement of the technical evaluation results, the bid prices which have a value of 45 percent will be formally unsealed.

The contract will be awarded to the consortium that accumulates the greatest number of points and so offers the best value in the tender process.

Earlier this year, Italian company Impregilo SpA, part of one of the consortia, claimed it had obtained top marks in the technical appraisal, a statement that was categorically denied by the ACP which claimed that the evaluation process was still under way.

Impregilo's consortium partners are Spain's Sacyr Vallehermoso SA, Portugal's Somague, Belgium's Jan de Nul and Panama's Cusa.

Two other consortiums are on the short list. The first is the CANAL grouping including Spain's ACS SA, Acciona SA and Germany's Hochtief AG. The second is a Japanese-US group led by the privately held Bechtel.

Last week, ACP also announced it would soon solicit bids for the fourth and last dry excavation project, deemed by the Agency as the second most significant contract of the Expansion Program.

The project will be the final phase in creating a critical access channel that will link the new Pacific locks with the Canal's existing Gaillard Cut.

The scope of work will include the excavation, removal and disposal of approximately 27 million cubic meters of non-classified material.

The solicitation will also call for the installation of an approximately 1.8-kilometer-long, backfilled, cellular, cofferdam water barrier and the construction of a 2.8-kilometer-long, impervious, clay, core-rock fill dam.