This saves the absolute path of the current working directory to the variable cwd:
cwd
cwd=$(pwd)
In your case you can just do:
export PATH=$PATH:$(pwd)+somethingelse
I have the following in my .bash_profile:
function mark { export $1=`pwd`;}
so anytime I want to remember a directory, I can just type, e.g. mark there .
Then when I want to go back to that location, I just type cd $there
Your assignment has an extra $:
$
export PATH=$PATH:${PWD}:/foo/bar