It took thirteen years to construct, rises to five levels and is a dual-track ship lock for the Three Gorges Dam. The Three Gorges Dam is a Chinese hydroelectric river dam which spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province, China.
As of 2007, it is the largest hydroelectric river dam in the world, more than five times the size of the Hoover Dam.
The reservoir began filling on June 1, 2003, and will occupy part of the scenic Three Gorges area, between the cities of Yichang, Hubei; and Fuling, Chongqing.
The ship lock for navigating the dam is the largest of its kind in the world and is an amazing piece of construction.
Zhang Guangdou, an academician on both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering, said, ‘The permanent ship lock demands the most sophisticated technology in the entire Three Gorges project. Tests have shown the lock would ensure safe navigation for ships when the water level behind the dam rises from 156 to 175 meters. This means the two-way traffic can resume on May 1, two months ahead of schedule.’
Niu Xinqiang, vice director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee, said, ‘The engineering, metal structures, machinery and electronic equipment of the lifting facility for the 113-meter drop between the upstream and downstream have reached international standards.’
The installation of ship locks is intended to increase river shipping from 10 million to 50 million tonnes annually, with transportation costs cut by 30 to 37%. Shipping will become safer, since the gorges are notoriously dangerous to navigate. Each ship lock is made up of 5 stages taking around 4 hours in total to complete.
The canal locks are designed to be 280 m long, 35 m wide, and 5 m deep (918 x 114 x 16.4 ft). That is 30 m longer than those on the St Lawrence Seaway, but half as deep. The canal locks are designed to handle 10,000 ton barges. The lock,6.4 km long and costing RMB6.2 billion($775 million), started to be built into mountainous terrain on the northern bank of the Yangtze in 1994.
The four-level operation began in 2004. The lock has been restricted to one-way traffic, alternating every 24 hours, since September last year when work began to raise the beds of the two uppermost tiers of the lock from 131 to 139 meters.
The operation began on the southern route, which reopened on January 20, and work on the northern track started the same day. The Three Gorges Project is located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China’s longest and one of the country’s most important inland waterways. All of which is totally amazing.
Source: China View
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