The Pinglu Canal connects the river and the sea (a new economic direction and a major engineering front line)
Figure ①: Construction site of Pinglu Canal Horse Road Hub.
Figure 2: The Pinglu Canal Youth Hub under construction.
The above pictures were taken by Cao Yiming, a journalist from Xinhua News Agency
Schematic diagram of the geographical location of the Pinglu Canal.
Split the mountains and open the river!
Standing on a 188 meter high slope, looking down, hundreds of construction vehicles shuttle back and forth on the construction site, excavators roar and compete, and the world's largest inland river provincial water lock hub is gradually taking shape. The nearby digital management center displays real-time location information, vehicle speed, fuel consumption, and other data of work vehicles on the digital twin sand table screen, achieving monitoring and monitoring of the entire construction process data.
This is the construction site of the Ma Dao Hub, the first cascade hub of the Pinglu Canal in Guangxi.
Starting from the mouth of the Pingtang River in the Xijin Reservoir Area of Hengzhou City, Nanning in the north, it meanders southward and flows directly into the Beibu Gulf. The Pinglu Canal has a total length of 134.2 kilometers and is the first river sea connected Grand Canal constructed since the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is also one of the major projects in the 14th Five Year Plan. The Pinglu Canal, which flows southward from the main stream of the Xijiang River into the sea, will become the shortest and most convenient water transportation channel in the southwest region after completion.
On August 28th last year, the construction of the Pinglu Canal officially began. How is the progress of the one-year construction project? The reporter visited the construction site along the canal.
Tongjiang——
The construction period is 52 months, and the designed annual one-way traffic capacity is 89 million tons
Jiangkou Street, Pingtang Village, Hengzhou City, is located at the starting point of the Pinglu Canal. In the past, the main stream of the Xijiang River used to flow peacefully, but now it is a bustling scene. Dredgers, grab boats, and mud barges are busy with their work, working hard to excavate underwater soil and rock.
Sun Qiqi, a 50 year old villager from Pingtang Village, is a construction worker for the canal. "My family goes fishing. In the past, during the fishing ban, we could only repair our fishing nets and gear without any money." Sun Qiqi said, "Now, during the fishing ban, we can also earn money at our doorstep, with a monthly income of over 5000 yuan."
The people of Pingtang have long hoped for the canal. Pingtang Port, located on the ancient salt road, was once prosperous due to salt and rice trade. "The canal will definitely make the village prosperous again!" Sun Guoqi looked forward to it.
More than 9100 builders are fighting fiercely at the construction site of the Pinglu Canal. Since the start of construction, the canal has given priority to attracting local residents such as migrant workers returning to their hometowns and poverty-stricken populations to participate in the construction. A total of 4712 people have been provided with work as a substitute for relief, driving the increase in income for people along the route.
What provides conditions for widespread employment is the huge scale of the project: a construction period of 52 months, a designed annual one-way traffic capacity of 89 million tons, and a total investment of about 72.7 billion yuan
How to build a project with a long construction period, high standards, and high investment? Fundraising and management are essential for engineering. As of now, the cumulative completed investment of the project exceeds 15.8 billion yuan. Grasp key links such as engineering decision-making, bidding, procurement, cost estimation, and payment, and extend supervision to the front line.
"We actively strive for and make good use of central vehicle purchase tax subsidy funds, central budget investments, national policy oriented development financial instruments, etc., strengthen research and calculation of the owner's income, basin development income, ship lock income, etc. of the Pinglu Canal project, create conditions for multi-channel financing such as issuing corporate bonds, and continuously increase the fundraising efforts for project construction. At the same time, we strengthen fund supervision and improve the efficiency of fund utilization." Luo Changshi, Director of the Industrial Transportation Department of the Guangxi Department of Finance, introduced.
"According to the overall construction plan of 'connecting the river to the sea, overall planning, one-time construction, and system operation', we are fully committed to promoting the full construction of the Pinglu Canal project," said Cheng Yaofei, the commander of the Pinglu Canal Engineering Construction Command.
Hub——
Overcoming the 65 meter water level drop and innovating to solve technical problems
"Every day is the same!" Wu Peng, an expert in the design of the Pinglu Canal project, sighed at the construction site of the Ma Dao Hub. "This used to be a wasteland, but now it has undergone tremendous changes.".
There is a water level drop of about 65 meters between the starting point of the Pinglu Canal in the Xijin Reservoir area and the end point at the mouth of the Pingtang River. To overcome the drop and achieve continuous navigation of 5000 ton ships, three major shipping hubs, namely Ma Dao, Qi Shi, and Qing Nian, are set up along the canal. Each hub is equipped with two 300 meter long and 34 meter wide giant ship locks.
The maximum water level drop of the Ma Dao hub is about 30 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a nine story building. There are significant construction difficulties in terms of drainage and water conservation. "After years of research and development, we have achieved breakthroughs in the layout of water conveyance systems, rapid valve opening and closing technology, and new structures of water-saving ship locks." Wu Peng introduced that when the Ma Dao hub discharges water, the lock chamber will sequentially discharge water to the third level provincial water tank. This part of the water is the water saved by the lock and can be used when the lock is refilled. Watering once only takes 16 minutes, with a water saving rate of 63%.
Relying on the academician workstation and the Pinglu Canal Expert Committee, various scientific research forces are working together to solve the technical difficulties of the canal.
Innovation leads, and the Pinglu Canal has become a smart and efficient technological project. At the Ma Dao hub, 10000 cubic meters of concrete are poured every day during peak hours. The construction team has overcome difficulties such as low heat, low shrinkage, and high crack resistance concrete preparation technology, as well as intelligent temperature control technology for large volume concrete, to ensure that the concrete temperature at the outlet of the mixing plant does not exceed 16 degrees Celsius.
"The 'Concrete Cloud Factory' is remotely controlled, with a pre cooling temperature control system for temperature regulation and traceability, a video monitoring system for unmanned operation, and an unmanned weighing system to improve material entry efficiency... Through a series of measures, we have achieved full process management of concrete from raw material entry, inspection, production, transportation to pouring and maintenance, improving concrete quality." Introduced by He Zhaolong, Director of the Digital Management Department of the Pinglu Canal Ma Dao Hub Project of China Communications Second Navigation Bureau.
To see the beautiful mountains and rivers stretching thousands of miles, first protect an inch of land. The Pinglu Canal is expected to excavate 339 million cubic meters of earthwork. How to deal with such a large volume? Cheng Yaofei said, "We will promote the comprehensive utilization of soil and rock by means of land reclamation and other methods, and develop and utilize a data platform for comprehensive utilization of soil and rock, relying on information technology to continuously track progress and refine management." According to calculations, through the comprehensive utilization of soil and rock, it is estimated that an additional 835.7 hectares of arable land will be added along the canal bank.
Dahai——
Shorten the sea voyage by 560 kilometers, forming a land sea linkage advantage
The bow of the ship is lowered and rotated by the heavy winch head. In less than a minute, this one person tall, 24 ton heavy "Iron Teeth" slowly sank into the water. In Qinzhou Port, Guangxi, China's first super large self-propelled winch suction vessel, "Tianjing", participated in the construction of the Pinglu Canal. On the deck, Captain Zhou Fuhua of the "Tianjing" said, "We are dutiful to carry out dredging construction at the mouth of the Pinglu Canal."
The major investment in major projects is aimed at achieving the goal of connecting the Yangtze River to the sea and driving the development of the surrounding areas as soon as possible.
Located at the Guigang North Port Wharf in the middle reaches of the Xijiang River, the trunk line of the the Pearl River Basin, a cargo ship loaded with 4000 tons of coal slowly docked. Zheng Weibo, Deputy Director of the Marketing Department of China Huadian Group Guigang Power Generation Co., Ltd., the owner, said, "This imported coal is transported from Guangzhou Port along the Xijiang River to Guigang Port, with a total distance of about 600 kilometers. After the opening of the Pinglu Canal, the transportation from Qinzhou Port in Guangxi to Guigang Port via the Pinglu Canal can save about 300 kilometers, save about 40000 yuan in freight costs, and arrive two days in advance. This will greatly solve the problems of lock maintenance and insufficient passage capacity in the original Xijiang Channel."
Hu Huaping, Deputy Director General of the Department of Transportation of Guangxi, said: "The Pinglu Canal is of great strategic significance for Guangxi and even the southwest region to integrate into the joint construction of the 'the Belt and Road', to jointly build a new land and sea channel in the west at a high level, to serve to build a new development pattern and a China ASEAN community of shared future."
With the assistance of the canal, the more than 5800 kilometer inland waterway network in Guangxi and some areas of Yungui will be directly connected to ocean transportation, better leveraging the structural functions of the western land sea new channel and significantly improving the transportation capacity of the channel. The goods from the Southwest region are transported out of the Beibu Gulf via the Pinglu Canal, which shortens the sea voyage by about 560 kilometers compared to the current route through Guangzhou. It is expected to save transportation costs of over 5.2 billion yuan annually for the areas along the Western Land Sea New Corridor. "At present, the Beibu Gulf Port has opened 75 container shipping routes, achieving full coverage of ASEAN countries." Gu Yanchao, Chairman of Guangxi Beigang Xijiang Port Co., Ltd., introduced that after the completion of the Pinglu Canal, the 23 ports under the company can effectively connect with the Beibu Gulf Port, forming a convenient logistics corridor connecting the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area and directly connecting to ASEAN.
One river connects, and all industries prosper. "The economic belt formed by the canal will fully unleash the potential of the 'sea', stimulate the vitality of the 'river', and drive the high-level and high-quality development of industries such as chemical industry, new energy materials, and equipment manufacturing in Qinzhou," said Yan Songyin, Director of the Qinzhou Marine Bureau.
Rise towards the sea and strive for strength towards the sea. The Pinglu Canal will change the industrial layout of Guangxi, promote coordinated economic development along the western land sea new channel, achieve strategic breakthroughs in the economic development of Nanning and Qinzhou, and drive innovative and open development in cities such as Guigang, Liuzhou, and Laibin. At the same time, it will also create favorable conditions for the development of the sea oriented economy and the transfer of industries from the Pearl River Delta region in the middle and upper reaches of the Xijiang River, such as Qujing City in Yunnan Province and Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province.
Current data layout
