Ship lifts in China

The government of China has built or is building several new ship lifts

Ship lifts, also called boat lifts or lift locks, are an alternative to canal locks. Unlike a canal lock a ship lift has an entire basin that the vessels enter, then water-tight doors close, and the ship lift raises or lowers the entire basin.

Three Gorges Ship Lift

The ship lift at the Three Gorges Dam was designed to lift vessels of up to 3,000 tons displacement.cite web
url=http://www.moafs.org/newsletter/April%202002/3gorgestats.htm
title=Three Gorges Dam
publisher=Missouri Chapter American Fisheries Society
date=April 20] 2002
accessdate=2007-01-28] cite news
url=http://www.kuk.de/content/akt/inf/yangtze_bautechnik_en.pdf
title=Planning of the ship lift at the Three Gorges dam in China
publisher=
author=Dorothea Krebs, Thomas Runte, Gerhard Strack
date=
accessdate=2008-03-12
quote=] The vertical distance traveled will be 113 metres.cite web
url=http://www.ctgpc.com/benefifs/benefifs_a_5.htm
title=Its Buildings with Biggest Indices
publisher="China Three Gorges Project"
date=2002
accessdate=2007-01-28] The size of the ship lift's basin will be 120x18x3.5 meters.cite web
url=http://www.threegorgesprobe.org/tgp/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=8803
title=Three Gorges shiplift resurfaces
publisher="Three Gorges Probe"
date=November 7 2003
accessdate=2007-01-28]

The ship lift, when completed, will take 30 to 40 minutes to ascend or descend, as opposed to the three to four hours for stepping through the main locks.cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4512015.stm
title=China's west seeks to impress investors
publisher=BBC
date=May 4 2005
accessdate=2007-01-28] cite web
url=http://www.threegorgesprobe.org/tgp/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=12712
title=Ship lift work to begin at Three Gorges site] ,
publisher="Three Gorges Probe"
date=March 23 2005
accessdate=2007-01-28]

In the original plans the ship lift was going to have the capacity to lift vessels of up to 11,500 tons displacement.cite web
url=http://www.probeinternational.org/probeint/threegorges/tgp/tgp19.html#ship
title=Three Gorges Probe
publisher="Probe International"
date=June 19 2000
accessdate=2007-01-28]

Most of the dam was completed on May 21 2006.cite news
url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/05/21/2003309291
title=Three Gorges dam ready to go
date=May 21, 2006
publisher=Taipei Times
accessdate=2007-01-28] cite news
url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/20/world/main1638180.shtml
title=China Completes Three Gorges Dam
date=May 20, 2006
publisher=CBS News
accessdate=2007-01-28] But the ship lift was not yet complete. "China Daily" predicted, on October 3 2006, that the shiplift wouldn't be completed until 2008.cite news
url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/03/content_701229.htm
title=300,000 more to be relocated from Dam region
publisher=China Daily
date=October 3 2006
accessdate=2007-01-28]

One of the complicating factors the design has to deal with is that the water level can vary dramatically.The ship lift had to be designed to work properly even if the water levels that varied by 12 meters on the lower side, and 30 meters on the upper side.

Other Ship Lifts

The Chinese government has built several other ship lifts, of lesser capacity,cite web
url=http://www.probeinternational.org/probeint/threegorges/tgp/tgp19.html#ship
title=Three Gorges Probe
publisher="Probe International"
date=June 19 2000
accessdate=2007-01-28]
#There is a ship lift at the Geheyan dam, in Hubei Province, capable of lifting vessels of 300 tons displacement.cite web
url=http://www.probeinternational.org/probeint/threegorges/tgp/tgp19.html#ship
title=Three Gorges Probe
publisher="Probe International"
author=Wang Weiluo
date=June 19 2000
issue=19
accessdate=2007-01-28] The dam was completed in 1994, but technical difficulties delayed the opening of the ship lift for four more years.
#There is a ship lift on the Danjiang River, at the Danjiangkou dam, also in Hubei Province, capable of lifting vessels of 450 tons displacement.
#There will be a ship-lift on the Longtan dam on the Hongshui River, a branch of the Pearl River, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.cite news
url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-10/26/content_275623.htm
title=Hongshui River in south China to be dammed in November
publisher=China Daily
date=October 26 2003
accessdate=2007-01-28] The Longtan ship lift has the capacity to lift vessels of 250 tons, in a basin 40×10.8×1.8 meters, and a vertical lift of 68.5 meters. [http://www.iahr.org/e-library/beijing_proceedings/Theme_D/PROTOTYPE%20OBSERVATION%20STUDY.html Prototype observation study of Yantan vertical ship lift] ]

References