Firms to design Three Gorges shiplift
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-22 08:54
Two German engineering companies have won contracts to jointly design the
world's largest shiplift project for the world's largest hydropower
project the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River.
The agreements have
been confirmed by both China Yangtze River Three Gorges Development Corporation,
developer of the project, and the Survey and Design Institute of the Yangtze
Water Resources Committee (YWRC).
The vertical hoisting shiplift will
raise vessels to the higher water level on the upstream side of the dam much
more quickly than the current five-stage shiplock.
China completed
construction of the world's largest dam on Saturday in the Three Gorges area,
Central China's Hubei Province, signifying a milestone accomplishment in the
mammoth Three Gorges water control project that aims to tame the flood-prone
Yangtze River, the nation's longest.
At 2 pm on Saturday, the final
concrete was poured for the 2,309-metre-long, 185-metre-high main wall of the
Three Gorges Dam.
The shiplift is the first Sino-foreign co-operation
programme in the designing of China's self-developed Three Gorges Hydropower
Project, on which construction began in 1994.
The two German companies,
Lahmeyeb 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.
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