A Concrete Sample Was Pulled from the New Panama Canal Locks

gcaptain.com

22 points·wolfgke··6 comments

There were problems with the concrete mix even before they started pouring. http://www.concreteconstruction.net/infrastructure-projects/... (Feb 2013)

So, in order to save money, they used a bad mix for the concrete ...

Could be. Per the article swehner linked to (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10140279), they're making their own concrete as well, which makes sense when they need to pour that much and it has to be of such quality, to keep salt water away from the rebar for 100 years. Also mentions that the mix has to be kept in a very narrow temperature range, "7.7 degrees C (14 degrees F)", which has to be difficult in Panama.

You get what you pay for.

Locke (film). Teehee.

The contract winner was selected based on the “non-negotiated best value proposal”, i.e. the one that obtained the highest combined score for their Price Proposal and Technical Proposal using a weighted model where the Technical Proposal was assigned 55 percent of the total score and the Price Proposal was assigned 45 percent of the total score.

Ultimately, GUPC was selected as the winner with the highest technical score and lowest total (fixed) price proposal at $3.221 billion.

Hey, these folk say they can provide the moon on a stick for half a moldy cabbage and a variety of odd socks. They must be great.

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