(Yicai) June 9 – China began construction of the Three Gorges New Water Transport Channel, the largest comprehensive infrastructure undertaking on the Yangtze River since the Three Gorges project, launching a CNY77.208 billion (USD10.7 billion) project aimed at relieving chronic shipping congestion on the Yangtze River and sharply expanding freight capacity.

The project, started in Yichang, Central China's Hubei province yesterday, combines water conservancy, shipping and ecological protection functions. Once completed in 2033, it is expected to more than triple the annual cargo throughput capacity at the Three Gorges Hub and significantly improve transport efficiency along China's busiest inland waterway.

According to information released by the Changjiang Water Resources Commission under China's water resources ministry, the project includes a new ship lock channel at the Three Gorges Hub and new ship locks and capacity expansion works at the downstream Gezhouba Dam.

The expansion is expected to shorten lock transit times for vessels under 5,000 tons to about 40 minutes and cut waterborne travel time from Chongqing to Yichang Port, located downstream of the Gezhouba Dam, by around two days.

Major Capacity Expansion

The new channel at the Three Gorges Dam will be built north of the existing ship locks and will feature two new five-stage ship lock lines. Upon completion, the hub will operate four ship lock lines in total. Combined with the existing ship lift serving smaller vessels, annual designed cargo throughput capacity will increase to 336 million tons from the current 100 million tons.

At the Gezhouba Dam, the existing No. 3 ship lock will be demolished and replaced with two new single-stage ship locks. The upstream and downstream approach channels will also be dredged and widened. After the upgrade, the Gezhouba Dam will operate four ship lock lines with annual cargo throughput capacity reaching 360 million tons.

Rapid economic growth has driven a sharp increase in freight volumes on the Yangtze River, pushing the existing Three Gorges Ship Locks well beyond their original design capacity. The locks were designed for an annual two-way cargo throughput of 100 million tons. Early projections indicated that the saturation point would not be reached until the year 2030.

Instead, annual cargo throughput reached 170 million tons last year, exceeding the design capacity by more than 70 percent. During peak periods, average waiting times for vessels have increased from several hours in the early years of operation to as long as 12 days.

Economic Benefits Expected

The project will greatly ease the long-standing constraints on Yangtze River transport capacity caused by vessel congestion at the ship locks, Qin Zunwen, vice president of the Chinese Society for Urban Economics and secretary-general of the Yangtze River High-end Think Tank Alliance, told Yicai.

It will reduce logistics costs for manufacturing products and bulk commodities in regions along the river, strengthen links between central and western China and eastern coastal markets, and provide a stronger water transport foundation for industrial coordination, urban-rural integration and further opening-up along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Qin added.

Qin said the greatest beneficiaries of the project will be the urban cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle upstream.

The outward transportation of bulk commodities such as chemicals, equipment and building materials from the Chengdu-Chongqing region will no longer face the same restrictions, while the cost of transporting light industrial goods, auto parts and consumer products from the middle Yangtze region westward will decline, Qin said. This will help deepen industrial supply chain cooperation between the two major economic regions, he added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine