INTRODUCTION The shoreline of Panama has increasingly become densely populated and, as the economy has boomed over the past 10 years, there is strong demand for high-end products. The real-estate market has taken a revolutionary step with the completion of the the first artificial real-estate island in the Americas. The Santa Maria island is named after one of the vessels used by Christopher Colombus on his first transatlantic voyage in 1492. The island is connected to the shore by a bridge. The project was initiated by the Ocean Reef Island Inc., and Boskalis Panama S.A. was awarded the Design and Construct contract at the end of a tender procedure. The decisive factors included not only the price but also, and more importantly, the reliability of the contractor in terms of

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