(August 31, 1999) Yichang, 31st August: The construction of the Three Gorges Project at the middle reaches of the Yangtze River [Chang Jiang] has entered its most critical stage in terms of labour intensity and technical difficulty. So said He Gong, deputy general manager of the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, the dam’s developer, in a recent interview with Xinhua. According to He, workers are now engaged in pouring concrete for the dam, as concrete is needed for the permanent ship lock, the riverbed dam, and the power plants on the left bank of the Yangtze. The total amount of concrete necessary for the main works of the Three Gorges Project is well over 27 million cu.m., the largest of its kind in the world. By late July, workers had poured more than three million cu.m. of concrete, dug 18 million cu.m. of earth and stone, and refilled another eight million cu.m. of earth and stone. In accordance with the construction plan, four million cu.m. of concrete will have been poured, and 11.3bn yuan will be spent this year. “The monthly concrete pouring volume is expected to exceed 500,000 cu.m. in August, the highest level in the world, but in June and in July, the monthly volume was below 400,000 cu.m. because of the hot weather,” said He.

The gigantic Three Gorges Project will be built in three stages, will cost well over 203.9bn yuan, and when completed will be capable of generating 84.7bn kWh of electricity a year. Construction of the dam began in 1993, and the second phase of the construction was inaugurated by the successful damming of the main stream of the Yangtze in November 1997. During the second phase, which will end in 2003, the first generating unit will be made ready for power generation and the permanent ship lock will also be ready for traffic. “The greatest challenge in building the dam is how to ensure the fulfilment of the concrete pouring plan and the quality of the work simultaneously,” said the deputy manager, adding that the coming winter will test the quality of the concrete work done this summer. In the meantime, a total of 240,000 tons of metallic structures will be erected or repaired during the second stage, and a turbo-generator with a generating capacity of 700,000 kW will also be installed during the second stage. To solve possible technical difficulties in constructing the Three Gorges Dam, the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation has spent about 1.2bn yuan on scientific research and signed 623 contracts with scientific and technological institutes. A number of scientific and technological achievements have resulted from this endeavour, greatly aiding the second-stage construction.

According to Yang Pusheng, supervisor-in-chief for construction of the Three Gorges Project, it is still difficult to predict how long the concrete structures will last because concrete appeared just 200 years ago. However, Chinese scientists and technicians are endeavouring to assure that the Three Gorges Dam may last for ever. They have carried out long-term comparisons and experiments to learn all they could about the properties of concrete, and have introduced a complete quality control system covering raw materials, mixing, transport, pouring, temperature control and maintenance in a bid to ensure the quality of the concrete for the Three Gorges Dam, especially its durability. “With the most advanced mixing and pouring equipment, coupled with sound quality control and management efforts, the Three Gorges Project will become another miracle of human civilization, just like the Great Wall and the pyramids of Egypt,” Yang added.

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China news agency).

BBC Worldwide  Monitoring, August 31, 1999