Three Gorges dam site, Hubei: Two German engineering companies have won contracts to jointly design the world’s largest shiplift project with the design institute of the world’s largest hydropower project at the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River. The information has been confirmed by both the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Development Corporation, developer of the project, and the Survey and the Design Institute of the Yangtze Water Resources Committee (YWRC). <!–break–>The vertical hoisting shiplift will raise vessels to the higher water level on the upstream side of the dam much more quickly than the operating five-stage shiplock of the gigantic hydropower project. The shiplift designing is the first Sino-foreign cooperation program in the designing of China’s self-developed Three Gorges Hydropower Project, which went into construction at the end of 1994. The two German companies, Lahmeyer and Krebs und Kiefer (K & K),have been entrusted to submit designs for the ship-container part of the structure by the end of this year, according to the project undertaker. "The introduction of foreign cooperation in the project designing is aimed at safety guarantee," said Li Yong’an, general manager of the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Development Corporation in an exclusive interview with Xinhua. According to sources with YWRC’s design institute, China has sent many experts to study abroad for suitable designs of the shiplift of the Three Gorges dam and the feasibility study started as early as 1958. The experts believed that German technology for the rack and piston hoisting system is more mature than other optional plans. Qin Liming, a YWRC senior engineer responsible to coordinate with the German companies in the shiplift designing, said the TGP shiplift is the world’s largest. With one-step vertical hoisting mechanism, the ship lock, equipped with a ship-container 120 meters by 18 meters by 3.5 meters in size, is capable of carrying a passenger liner or cargo boat of 3,000 dwt (dead weight tonnages)at a time. The future shiplift can hoist a ship-container holding water and vessels with a combined weight of 14,000 tons at the maximum to a height of 113 meters at a time, he said. The shiplift is expected to be installed to the left side of the temporary shiplock, which finished its role of handling vessels in 2003, when the two-way and five-level shiplock, close to the left bank of the Three Gorges dam site, went into operation. The longest cruising along the Yangtze can go upstream from the river’s eastern estuary of Shanghai to western inland metropolitan of Chongqing via the five-stage Three Gorges shiplock, which is capable of passing 10,000 tons barge fleet. The shiplock has greatly broadened the shipping prospects along the Yangtze River, making it an east-west artery of trade commerce in China. The shiplock handled transportation of over 40 million tons of cargo last year. The volume is foreseeable to rise to 60 million tons in 2010, and 100 million tons in 2020, with the boom of economy in west China region. However, the current single trip passing through the shiplock takes nearly three hours, which usually frustrates travelers waiting aboard. Qin Liming said when the shiplift is put in place, it only takes about 40 minutes for ships and boats to pass through the dam, and it will also prioritize the passing of passenger boats. With the completion of the main wall of the dam on Saturday, the Three Gorges dam of 181 meters in maximum height and 185 meters above sea level is ready to store water from the current 135 meter above see level to 156 meters after the flood season this year. The surging water level will submerge dangerous shoals on the water navigation route. Sources with the port authority in Chongqing, shipping on the Yangtze, a transportation means costing less than air, railway and road transportation will take a larger market share with the attraction of the river scenery. Environmental protectors expect the booming water transportation on the Yangtze would greatly contribute to the reduction of energy consumption and pollution from truck emission.