Three Gorges Dam Benefits about Navigation

Three Gorges Dam Benefits about Navigation – Important Location of Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam is located on the conjunction place of upstream and downstream of the Yangtze River. The geographical position of Three Gorges Dam is very good due to it can channelize the river course from Sandouping to Chongqing for the upper side, and increase the flow rate of the down stream of the Yangtze River below Gezhouba Dam in dry season, can relatively adequately improve the navigation condition between Chongqing and Hankow, making the Yangtze River more worthy the reputation of "Golden Waterway". And the navigation benefit - one of the most important Three Gorges Dam benefits becomes more obvious.

Three Gorges Dam Benefits about Navigation – Increase River Course Depth

After the Three Gorge Dam built, the river course between Yichang and Chongqing will become deep water route. On this area, 109 shoals were submerged by deep water, and all twist beach stations can be canceled, adding the increase of river course width and turning radius, ten thousand tons fleet can directly reach Chongqing from Hankow. The annual guarantee rate will be more than fifty percent, and annual unidirectional passing by capacity will increase to 50 million tons from 10 million tons.

Three Gorges Dam Benefits about Navigation – Benefits to Passing by Capacity

The problem that captains of Yangtze Cruise always worry about - the landside on the both banks of the Yangtze River will obstruct or stop navigation – will be completely solved. After the Three Gorges Dam built, the navigation time greatly decreased, and navigation cost decreased 33 percents to 37 percents. On downstream, the goods amount for each horsepower increased to 2 to 7 tons from present 0.7 to 0.9 tons.

Three Gorges Dam Benefits about Navigation – Benefits to River Course below Three Gorges Dam

After the Three Gorges Dam completed, the flow rate in the river course below Three Gorges Dam in winter dry season will increase to 5500 cubic meters per second from present 2700 cubic meters per second under natural condition. The increase flow rate in the river course below Three Gorge Dam not only can make the power generation capacity of Gezhouba increase 4 billion KWH every year, but also can make the deep of river course between Hankow and Yichang obviously increase, which will greatly increase its passing by capacity in winter.