infrastructure

PANAMA CITY – Water will start rushing into the newly expanded Panama Canal on Thursday in one area that was widened, ahead of the waterway's April 2016 re-inauguration.

The National Structural Materials and Models Laboratory has raised concerns about the deterioration of a concrete cap poured over rock face to hold back the hillside along the route during heavy rains. If action is not taken in the near term, LANAMME said drivers could be in danger of landslides.

China Development Bank and the Asian country's export credit financing agency agreed to provide a total of $7 billion in financing for Brazil's state-run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro. And Tianjin Airlines signed a contract to buy 22 jets from São Paulo-based Embraer.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Opponents of Nicaragua’s dubious plans to build a $50 billion interoceanic canal are trying to rally U.S. help in fighting the controversial project. But it’s not clear if official Washington is listening.

If approved by the full Assembly, yearly rent increases would be capped at 10 percent, down from the current 15 percent.

The project will expand the traffic-choked section of the Inter-American highway between San José and Juan Santamaría International Airport to eight lanes, and to four lanes from the airport to San Ramón. Monday's signing ceremony was also a victory for civic groups who had battled to revoke the original concession that they said was too expensive and the result of backroom deals.

The deadline to clear lands currently occupied by a slum known as Triángulo de la Solidaridad expires on March 28, but the Housing Ministry on Tuesday said they will need at least three more months to complete the relocation.

Costa Rica has been seeking information – including specific environmental assessment details and routes – from its northern neighbor for four years. But even today, as the $50 billion project moves forward, Costa Rican officials say they have received little information to assuage concerns.

RIVAS, Nicaragua – It might be the last time that Kenley Vado casts his lines into the waters at his favorite fishing spot at the mouth of the Brito River on Nicaragua’s southern Pacific Coast.

The National Roadway Council on Wednesday confirmed the decision to postpone the first stage of expansion of the Circunvalación, a belt route bordering the capital’s central canton, until Housing Ministry officials complete the relocation of 191 families currently living where the new road is to be built.