Dive Brief:

• In the early 20th century, building a canal across Panama was an audacious – some might say near-impossible – undertaking, and widening it now to accommodate today's behemoth cargo vessels is posing its own challenges.
• There are the predictable delays in materials, as well as some strikes. But now, the contractor leading the construction consortium, Sacyr Vallehermoso of Spain, says it's going to stop work three weeks from now if the Panama Canal Authority doesn't say it will cover $1.6 billion in cost overruns so far in the $5.25 billion project.
• None of this makes leaders happy in Miami, where they are renovating the port to accept the huge ships that will come through the canal and are working on a scheduled canal opening of 2015.

Dive Insight:

The canal expansion, which includes new locks, was to have been done this year, in time for the 100th anniversary of the canal's opening. That got pushed back to mid-2015, and now word that locks to be installed on the Pacific side of the canal will not be delivered until June 30, 2015, pushes that farther off. With testing of the locks before they go into use, opening might be in late 2015. And that is assuming the authority and the consortium can iron out the $1.6 billion wrinkle.