Grupo Unidos por el Canal

Work to expand the Panama Canal -- interrupted earlier this year for a dispute over cost overruns -- halted Wednesday, this time for a strike by workers demanding higher wages.

PANAMA CITY – A Spanish-led consortium resumed work Thursday to expand the Panama Canal, which handles five percent of global seaborne trade, after an acrimonious two-week stalemate over $1.6 billion in cost overruns.

PANAMA CITY – Work to widen the Panama Canal will resume on Thursday, an official said, two weeks after the huge project was suspended over $1.6 billion in cost overruns.

"Our patience has limits and we really feel this has to end in a week at the most," administrator Jorge Quijano said.

PANAMA CITY – An international consortium at loggerheads with Panama over work to expand the Panama Canal has presented a proposal to end a dispute over a $1.6 billion cost overrun, the group said late Thursday.

Work on expanding the Panama Canal will continue through at least next week after the construction consortium officially extended the deadline until Feb. 1 to resolve a dispute over $1.6 billion in cost overruns. The deadline had been set for this past Monday.

Work to enlarge the Panama Canal will be completed in 2015 no matter what, Panamanian Finance Minister Frank De Lima said Wednesday, despite the continuing feud over cost overruns with contractor GUPC.