On June 8, China began construction of the $11.6 billion Three Gorges new waterway project, which includes what will be the world’s largest inland ship lock system. This will constitute the largest ongoing construction project in the world. The factor driving the project is that China’s physical economic growth and shipments over the last two decades are greater than planners had anticipated.
This is not a problem that the “advanced sector” European and United States are suffering from.
In 2003, the Three Gorges Dam, officially known as the Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project, a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River in Hubei province, central China, began initial operations. The dam, now with 22,500 megawatts of installed generating capacity, is the world’s largest hydro-electricity producer. Whereas during the twentieth century as many as 4 million people died in the Yangtze River basin when it flooded, today the river’s current is regulated.
The Three Gorges dam system also constructed and operated a five-tier, double-lane lock system, which acts like an elevator, raising and lowering ships between the lower Yangtze and the upper Yangtze. The “problem,” as the June 9 Global Times reports is that “what was originally designed to handle 100 million tons of cargo annually reached that target 19 years ahead of schedule, as freight demand along China’s economic heartland continued to grow.” In 2025, the total cargo throughput passing through the Three Gorges Dam reached 173 million tons, far exceeding its design capacity; shipping delays ensued.
Hence the Three Gorges new waterway project, part of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), will build a new lock system north of the existing one. The five-tier, dual-track locks will be designed for 10,000-ton vessels. Upon completion, the Three Gorges Dam will have a lock system capacity of 336 million tons; the downstream Gezhouba Dam will feature a lock system with capacity of 360 million tons.
The new ship lock and its approach channels are scheduled for completion in 112 months, less than a decade. Niu Xinqiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering said that the project is expected to set world records for inland ship lock construction in navigable vessel dimensions, and chamber and earthwork excavation.
The Yangtze River Economic Belt spans 11 provincial-level regions. It contains 40% of China’s population, and accounts for nearly half of its economic output. The new waterway project is a gigantic step to make sure that this vital economy continues to work.
