Belgian dredging firm Jan de Nul has won the Panama Canal expansion’s last major contract, a $54.5-million job to dredge and excavate 4 million cu meters at the entrance of the historic waterway’s Pacific access channel. The contract will make way for construction of new and larger locks.
The Belgian firm bested two other companies for the contract. International Underground Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., proffered a $55.3-million bid, and a consortium of Central American firms, BKI-Meco, bid $71.3 million. The project, awarded on Sept. 16, will connect the new locks to the canal’s existing navigational channel, located near the Gaillard Cut.