China Daily
January 31, 2006

The Three Gorges Dam must stand the test of time with aplomb for generations to come, according to China’s top advisory body seeking to improve the world’s largest hydroelectric project’s quality control.

The Three Gorges Dam must stand the test of time with aplomb for generations to come, according to China’s top advisory body seeking to improve the world’s largest hydroelectric project’s quality control. China must equip its future generations with an eligible Three Gorges Project – – under construction since 1994 — said Qian Zhengying, vice-chairwoman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. "The quality of the project should be good enough to pass the test of history," Qian, the former minister of water resources, said in her latest speech following a quality inspection of the site. "During the past three years, concrete placement in the project has not been first class, causing a variety of related accidents and drawbacks, though the concrete process has improved compared with previous years," Qian said in her report, released Thursday. Qian, head of the expert group, made it clear that cracks have appeared since winter in the mammoth dam — with a crest elevation of 185 metres and a length of 2,309 metres — which "must be repaired fastidiously." Such cracks, mainly caused by drastic temperature changes, have also been discovered in the project’s permanent ship-locks and ship-lifts, the largest of their type in the world. The cracks have aroused strong public concern about the quality of the project, according to Qin and Pan Jiazheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Small cracks with a maximum width of 1.25 millimetres and depth of 2.5 metres "are inevitable in all of the world’s hydroelectric projects," said Lu Youmei, general manager of the Yichang-based China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation (CTGPC). Lu was confident the cracks will not affect the project’s quality and its future safe operation after necessary treatments, according to China News Service.