Dive Brief:

• The Panama Canal expansion project grew very quiet Wednesday, but the dispute between the consortium building the project and the canal owner was loud and strident as the contractors sent workers home.
• Grupo Unidos por El Canal (GUPC) says there is no way the Panama Canal Authority can expect contractors to cover $1.63 billion in cost overruns on what is now a $5.2 billion project and that the overruns were caused by bad information the authority gave the builders.
• The authority's administrator, Jorge Quijano, said GUPC is being "inflexible" and is trying to "blackmail" the authority into paying and is ignoring a contract that requires it to keep working.

Dive Insight:

The canal authority says it is financially able to pay for the project and has a "Plan B." It seems hard to conceive, however, that another company or consortium is ready to step into the job, especially since GUPC's bid was the only one that came in below a target of $3.48 billion and was $1 billion below the next bidder.