Mega dam expansion to boost Yangtze economic belt

China launched a colossal infrastructure project on Monday to expand the Three Gorges Dam's navigation system in Yichang, Hubei province, marking another milestone effort designed to eliminate chronic shipping capacity bottlenecks and supercharge the industrial arteries of the nation's vast economy.

With a total investment of approximately 77.2 billion yuan ($11.39 billion), the mega project comprises two core components: a new channel at the Three Gorges Hub and a shipping capacity expansion at the downstream Gezhouba Dam.

At the Three Gorges Hub, two new ship locks will be built after excavating the mountain on the left bank, parallel to the existing dual-line locks. Once completed, the hub will boast a four-lane lock configuration, according to operator China Three Gorges Corp.

Combined with the existing ship lift, the hub's total annual throughput capacity will surge to 336 million metric tons, the operator said. In 2025, the total freight volume passing through the Three Gorges Hub stood at 173 million metric tons.

The concurrent Gezhouba expansion involves dismantling its No 3 lock to construct two new single-stage locks on the left side, thus expanding the approach channels. This will take Gezhouba's total capacity to 360 million tons annually, it said.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt, spanning 11 provinces and municipalities, accounts for over 40 percent of the nation's population and GDP. Its industries, ranging from metallurgy and automotives to high-tech manufacturing, rely heavily on the river for transportation of 85 percent of the region's iron ore and foreign trade goods, as well as 83 percent of its coal.

Su Fengming, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission's Institute of Comprehensive Transportation, highlighted the waterway's indispensable economic role.

"In 2025, the Yangtze River Economic Belt's GDP exceeded 65 trillion yuan, with mainline port cargo throughput hitting 4.2 billion tons — surpassing the national railway cargo throughput total by over 80 percent," Su said.

Su noted that water transportation costs a mere one-fifth of rail transit, solidifying the river's position as the economic "main artery" as manufacturing and industrial bases increasingly shift toward the inland geographic center.

According to Niu Xinqiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, mainline freight volume on the Yangtze River has grown continuously over the past two decades, rising from 650 million tons in 2005 to 4.2 billion tons by 2025 — ranking first among global inland rivers for 20 consecutive years.

This rapid growth has strained the existing infrastructure's ship handling capacity, he said.

Niu said he believes that the new channel will elevate the hub's one-way design capacity from roughly 50 million tons to 168 million tons by 2050. This will accelerate the flow of key production factors and help bridge the gap between the nation's eastern and western regions, he said.