Some 40 percent of the top of the Cerro Paraiso hill has been removed to make way for the expansion of the Panama Canal, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said on Monday.
The 136-meter-high hill is now down to 84 meters and 25 percent of its rocks have now been removed, the ACP said. The project will take away a total of 7.4 million cubic meters of material.
Panama construction company Constructora Urbana (CUSA) has also completed the cleaning of a 146-hectare military U.S. Army firing range, destroying 600 bomb and mortar remains. The range was used from 1990 to 1999, when the United States handed control of the canal to Panama.
Panama is spending 5.25 billion U.S. dollars on the expansion which is set to end in 2014.
The ACP also said it had awarded two other contracts, one to Mexican-Panamanian company Cilsa Minera Maria to move a forest in the area affected, and the other to Colombian company Electrica deMedellin to move 12 electricity pylons.
The ACP plans to choose the companies to build the new canal's locks in 2009. The authority estimates the whole project will generate 30,000 jobs during 2006 to 2014.
Source:Xinhua
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