Aussie IT expertise and solutions for giant Panama Canal project

Gordon Peters
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 00:59

IT Industry - Deals

Melbourne-based IT firm, Aconex, has been selected to provide its online collaboration solution to the $3.2 billion Panama Canal expansion, one of the world's most famous engineering projects.

Aconex says its system, to support collaboration on the largest scale, will be used to link the hundreds of international participants involved in design and construction.

According to Aconex CEO, Leigh Jasper, the web-based Aconex system will provide the organisations engaged on the program with a central platform for managing information and project communication. 'The new set of locks, at the heart of the $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, will allow the waterway to double its shipping capacity by 2025. The project involves the construction of two new lock complexes - one on the Pacific and one on the Atlantic side of the Canal - that will be 40 percent longer and 60 percent wider than the originals. Each lock will have three chambers and each chamber will have three water recycling basins. The expansion program is scheduled for completion in 2014, 100 years after the canal first opened.'

Jasper, said the expansion project team comprises leading international contractors and consultants. 'The Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which operates the Canal, appointed CH2M Hill of the United States as program manager. Grupo Unidos por el Canal ('Grupo') - a joint venture consortium of Impregilo of Italy, Sacyr Vallehermoso of Spain, Jan de Nul Group of Belgium and Constructora Urbana of Panama - was awarded the design and build contract. The design consortium, CICP, is led by MWH Global and includes participants from the US, Argentina, Italy and the Netherlands.'

Jasper also said the project team will be made up of hundreds of participants based across the Americas and Europe, which will need to 'exchange tens of thousands of documents and correspondence items each month. As a result, efficient collaboration between parties will be integral to the project's success.'

Over the past ten years, Aconex has built an unparalleled ability to service complex, multi-billion dollar projects such as this. The challenges that these projects face - such as linking global business partners, managing risk and ensuring compliance with stakeholder requirements - make it essential to have an effective, neutral, and professionally-managed collaboration platform to control the flow of information.'

The Aconex online project management system will integrate with a number of enterprise applications, including Microsoft Sharepoint and Oracle's Primavera Contract Management, to provide project-wide collaboration and control.

According to Aconex director of product, Robert Phillpot, 'deployment of Aconex on a project can unlock additional value in these types of IT applications by ensuring that project data is comprehensively captured. Customers get both the scalability and flexibility of a project-wide, Software as a Service solution, and the knowledge that internal records management protocols are being adhered to.'