The Panama Canal Authority is soliciting bids for the estimated $70-million removal of 16 million cu m of material at the waterway’s Atlantic entrance. The job is a key portion of the canal’s $5.2-billion third-lane expansion project that will allow larger "post-Panamax" ships to use it. Last April, Belgium-based Dredging International won the $177.5-million contract to widen and deepen a nine-mile-long navigation channel beyond the Pacific entrance of the waterway. The deadline for bid submissions is July 15, with the project’s completion expected by the second quarter of 2013.