World's Largest Ship Elevator Opens at Three Gorges Dam in Central China

The world's largest ship elevator at the Three Gorges Dam opened in Yichang City, central China's Hubei Province, on Sunday, with a prospect to increase the shipping capacity past the dam by six million tons a year. The elevator, the existing largest lifting structure on a navigation route with the highest technical difficulty of the world, features large engineering scope, high lifting height and large weight lifting operation. The largest weight to be handled by the elevator is freighter of 3,000 DWT(deadweight ton) and the maximum vertical lifting height is 113 meters. The main components of the structure are four 169-meter high reinforced concrete towers. The chamber, a self-support orthotropic plate structure that is 120 meters long and 18 meters wide, works as a gigantic basin. Weighting around 15,500 tons, the elevator carries the ships upwards or downwards to pass the dam. A special safety mechanism, or a brake pad, is fixed. Four short screw sections connected to the ship chamber work as rotary locking rods. They rotary locking rods work continuously in an internal thread, or a nut post, that is fixed to the towers. If an accident occurs, this rotation is blocked and traction is achieved that supports the ship chamber independently. The elevator will cut journey times for passenger, cruise and small cargo ships passing through the dam from over three hours to about 40 minutes. Larger vessels still have to pass the dam by means of a two-lane, five-chamber lock chain like climbing stairs. "Large vessels walk the stairs, small ones take the elevator" to pass the Three Gorges Dam for some time to come. The elevator marks the completion of the Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River, which aims at producing electricity, increasing the Yangtze River's shipping capacity and reducing the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space. More on: http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20160919/8032445.shtml#!language=1 Subscribe us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CCTVPlus CCTV+ official website: http://www.cctvplus.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cctv-news-content Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsContent.CCTVPLUS Twitter: https://twitter.com/CCTV_Plus

Comments

1. We still use Amtrak...
2. What a fcking waste of resources and energy. They are just as bad or worse than the vile creatures of America.
3. Wow, pretty cool - looking forward to April 6th when I'm on the cruise! (It seems the passengers can stay on during the ride?)
4. that should be really impressive when you are in it.
5. China has done many engineering feats in the past like Grand Canal and the Great Wall. This is only the continuation.
6. Wery gud wol fifers . t; Finland
7. Fake!
8. chinese? uh oh
9. Amazing and very practical way to problem solve any given obstacles.
10. Nothing but negative comments about China. Guess the world is jealous when China gets back on its feet and innovation of building mega projects after more than a century of repeated and massive foreign invasions by Europeans, Americans and japanese. The west and Japan have grossly violated Chinese human rights both in the past and at present. They have nothing but jealousy and bad mouthing skills.
11. Look an elevator for your mam
12. Pfft , so what ? Dunwall tower had it for years !
13. aren't any bigger ships allowed then?
14. Perhaps it's big, but when this boat lift was built 120 years ago they really push the boundaries: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/museums-and-attractions/anderton-boat-lift
15. Sure its a mechanical engineers dream, but think of the eco devastation caused by the dam
16. NOT a lock... an ELEVATOR! "3rd floor please?"
17. Just wait till you see how the doors work!
    Amazing!
18. inb4explodes
19. Impressive, but will suck when it inevitably fails and everyone falls.
20. made by china use at your own risk !