The Three Gorges Ship Lock turns into a five-level operation

At 10:00 on September 10th, with the opening of the south gate, five cargo ships waiting for the “Yangyang 5” and “Yichang Jinhang 3” at the entrance of the gate entered the gate of the Three Gorges South Line in a drizzle. room. At 0:00 the same day, the 175-meter experimental water storage of the Three Gorges Dam began in 2013. The ship locks on the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Project also began to move into Class 5 operation at 22:00 on September 8. The time for the vessel to pass through the gate was extended by 40 minutes compared with the Class IV operation.

As of 8:00 on September 10, the water level in the Three Gorges reservoir area has risen to about 157.12 meters. According to the operational specifications of the Three Gorges ship lock, the Three Gorges Navigation Authority issued a timely notification of the progression of operations from four to five, and communicated to the ship through various means. Due to the fact that the ship has to go through more than one level of lock chambers, the time to pass the gate is extended by 40 minutes when compared to the fourth grade. The Three Gorges Navigation Administration stated that it will promptly make predictions and notifications for navigational information such as water conditions, and timely adjust the mooring lines to ensure that the river sections in the dam area are navigable, the ship locks are operating normally, and navigation safety is guaranteed during impoundment. .

In order to ensure the safe operation of the ship locks and the safety of ships passing the gates, according to the relevant research results of the “Key Technologies for Control of Draught of Three Gorges Ship Locks at Ship Lock Gates”, the maximum draught of the ships allowed at gates of the Three Gorges ship locks has been controlled at 4.0 meters, slightly lower than that at the time of the fourth class operation. 0.2 meters. However, as the water level rises further, the maximum allowable draught of ships allowed at the gate is expected to increase after the ship locks are switched to five levels without water supply.

It is reported that after the replacement of the Three Gorges ship lock, the five-level operation will continue until next May.