All design and build contracts for the Panamá Canal tunnel has been cancelled by the Panamá government, confirms Héctor Ortega, the director of Metro de Panamá. This was done on a Eco TV broadcast with the director as the guest.

This confirms that the Panama Canal Tunnel will be directly built by the Korean consortium, rather than via Metro de Panamá. This means,the tender by Metro de Panamá is cancelled. Result? The same Korean consortium will build the tunnel but now the Panamá government directly handles the project.

In February, the tender for the construction of the 5.3 kilometer long tunnel under the Panama Canal, as was won by the HPH Consortium. The all-Korean consortium made up of the companies Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd., Posco Engineering & Construction Co. and Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd.

The Koreans are already the contractors for building the Metro 3 extension project to which the new tunnel will be a part of. The overall Panama Metro Line 3 project is overseen by the consortium led by the Korean Hyundai at a cost of $ 2,844.09 million.

What is interesting is, on 13 August 2021, the Panama Metro had awarded for $9 million contract for the basic design and detail of the tunnel for the crossing of the Panama Canal on line 3 of the Metro to Técnica y Proyectos, S.A. (Typsa) and Louis Berger LAC S. de R.L.  This itself was after a lengthy process whereby the tender process was suspended by the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP) after a claim by the Aecom-Sener consortium that their experience had not been taken into consideration. Now all is gone to Koreans.