(August 8, 1999) Blowing up the Three Gorges cofferdam won’t trigger severe geological disasters, said project general manager Li Yongan. ‘Three Gorges dam will remain unaffected and safe even if there might be earthquakes.’

To blow up the massive cofferdam of the Three Gorges Project won’t trigger off severe geological disasters, said an executive representing the developer. “Blasting away the concrete cofferdam and the Three Gorges Reservoir’s water storage will spark off no severe geological disasters,” said Li Yong’an, general manager of China Yangtze River Three Gorges Development Corporation, in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday. In accordance with a construction schedule, workers will demolish the Three Gorges cofferdam connected to the southern bank of the Yangtze at 4 p.m. on Tuesday with 191.3 tons of explosives already planted under the water. The 580-meter-long and 140-meter-high cofferdam protecting the just-completed Three Gorges Dam will be dismantled from the height of 110 meters above with explosives enough to topple down 400 10-storey buildings, said Zhao Gen, a senior engineer with the Yangtze River Academic Institute and also the designer of the demolition project. “Three Gorges Dam will remain unaffected and safe even if there might be earthquakes,” said the general manager.

Xinhua, August 8, 1999