Through the endeavors of over 10,000 builders, by daybreak of December 31, the annual task of pouring 5.4 million cubic meters of concrete for the Three Gorges Project had been fulfilled, thereby setting a new world record of hydropower project construction.
The total volume of the concrete to be poured for the Three Gorges Project was about 28 million cubic meters. According to the schedule, no less than 4 million cubic meters of concrete must be poured annually in the three successive years from 1999 to 2001. In the world history of hydropower projects construction, the highest record of annual concrete pouring volume is 3.2 million cubic meters which was created by Brazil in constructing Itaipu hydropower station. In 1999, the annual concrete pouring volume of China's Three Gorges Project reached 4.58 million cubic meters, 1.38 million cubic meters higher than the world record.
In the 17-year construction process of the Three Gorges Project, the year 2000 saw the largest concrete pouring volume, 5.4 million cubic meters, equivalent to the whole for the Ertan hydropower station, the largest of its kind so far completed in China.
The fulfillment of the concrete-pouring target set for 2000 has laid a solid foundation for putting the first group of power generating units into operation and launching the permanent ship-locks into navigation in 2003.
(People's Daily 01/03/2001)
