Facts about Three Gorges Dam

Facts about Three Gorges Dam – Brief Introduction

China's Three Gorges Dam with towering 610 feet high and stretching 1.3 miles wide is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, which spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping in the middle of Xiling Gorge of Yichang city, in Hubei province. 38 kilometers away from the Gezhouba water conservancy project. Two parts of main body building engineering and diversion project are included to the Three Gorges Dam which cost 95.46 billion RMB. Construction began on 14th Dec, 1993 and completed on 20th May, 2006. There was a peak in 65000 cubic meters per second flood on July 19, 2010. Later then by the National Headquarters' approval, Three Gorges reservoir had fourth experimental water storage of 175 meters since September 10th, 2011, and reached 160.18 meters high on 18th, 19 o'clock.

Facts about Three Gorges Dam – History

For Chinese generations, we people have long dreamed of taming the Yangtze River for power generation and flood control. Yangtze River's endless floods have brought destruction and death for centuries. Nowadays, across the Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world, a great construction project, the Three Gorges Dam has been completed. Actually, Dr Sun Yat-sen (a great Chinese bourgeois pioneer) was the first person to propose a building dam on the Yangtze River in 1919 for power generation purpose, but the idea was deserted due to unfavorable political and economic conditions. Thus the suggestion didn't have mentioned until Mao Zedong (modern China's founding father). There was a simple poem written by him to express his conception of Three Gorges Dam. But because of the economic problems including the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the project was slowed progress. Anyway, it finally was adopted again during the 1980s by Chinese government for flood control.

Facts about Three Gorges Dam – Planning

Three Gorges Dam was adopted the design of 3 phases to assure the quality. Phase 1 began in 1994 and ended in 1997, which was preparing for working. Phase 2 began in 1998 and ended in 2003 when started generating electricity and generating a permanent ship lock opened for navigation. Phase 3 began in 2004 and ended in 2009 when the water level reached 175 meters (574 feet).

Facts about Three Gorges Dam – Construction

The Three Gorges Dam has been engineered to store over 5 trillion gallons of water and to withstand an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter scale. Three Gorges Dam is made of concrete with 2,335 m long and 115 m wide on the bottom, 40 m wide on the top. The normal storage level of water is 175 m in terms of the Dam's top level is 185 m. The downstream level is about 66m. Three Gorges Dam navigation's lowest level is 62 m which has 113 m height of water between the upstream. The Three Gorges Dam used 134 million cubic meters in earthwork for the main Dam, 27.94 million cubic meters of concrete and 593000 tons of steel. It contains 39.3 cubic kilometers of water and has a total surface area of 1,084 square kilometers. It contains 39.3 cubic kilometers of water and has a total surface area of 1,045 square kilometers. When the water level is at its maximum of 175 m above sea level higher than the river level downstream, the dam reservoir allows 10,000-ton ships to enter the nation's interior, which currently limits access to boats under 1,500 tons. In addition, the government said the dam controlled terrifying floods and provide electrical power to China's growing cities.

Facts about Three Gorges Dam – the Main Economic Benefits

1. Flood Control Benefit

An important function of the dam is to control flooding, which is a major problem for the seasonal river of the Yangtze River.The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world which has 22.15 billion cubic meters of flood protecting storage, reduces 27000-33000 cubic meters of peak flow per second.

2. The Largest Hydroelectric Dam

The Three Gorges Dam with its total installed capacity of 22.5 million kilowatt and the annual power generation capacity of 100 billion degrees, which will be the largest dam in the world.

3. Navigation Benefit

The Three Gorges Dam involves the installation of ship locks, would increase river shipping from 10 million to 50 million tons annually from Chongqing to Yichang.

Facts about Three Gorges Dam – Advantages and Disadvantages

The most important functions of the Three Gorges Dam are flood control, power generation and navigation. In addition, the environment, South-North Water Diversion and cultivation also benefit from the Dam. But this project has been under discussion in China since the idea of the dam was first proposed in 1919 due to the politics and safe, etc. The Three Gorges Dam is both a marvel of engineering and the greatest challenge its designers have ever faced. The problems we have to concern are the protection of the culture relics, ecological protection and mass migration.