Big contract plum for US

PITTSBURGH. The Panama Canal Authority has awarded a $20. 5 milion contract to supply sheet piling for use in the Panama Canal Expansion to L. B. Foster Company of Pennsylvania.

The contract will begin later this year and will install the piling for the excavation of the Pacific Access Channel and the construction of the Borinquen Dam. These will provide navigation access to the Culebra Cut via the new Pacific Post-Panama Locks.

"ACP is acting independently of the contractor in this purchase to minimize costs and pre-stage the material for a 2010 start of the construction contract," said Jim Wiehage, Houston/International Sales Manager for the Construction Products Group within L.B. Foster Company.

"The sophisticated logistics required for the shipment of $20 million of piling from mid-state Virginia and Texas to the middle of Panama are considerable," noted David Maedgen, Gerdau Ameristeel Piling Sales Manager.

Gerdau Ameristeel and L.B. Foster teamed up to ensure that the piling will move expeditiously by rail and truck to US ports, by ship to an Atlantic terminal near Colon, Panama and then by trucks to the jobsite. The first delivery is scheduled for October 2009 with three additional shipments of equal size completing transit by the end of January 2010.

"We are proud to supply construction materials for such a monumental effort and to participate together in this historic project," said Don Foster, Senior Vice President of L.B. Foster's Construction Products Group. The completed canal project will allow ultra-large intermodal ships traveling from Asia to continue by sea to the US East Coast, rather than unloading containers on the West Coast and continuing freight by rail or truck across the United States.