Large ships will be able to reach Yichang in 2025

By Shen Yuan, Yichang International Communication Studio

The dredging that has begun on the Zhijiang section of the Yangtze River means that, by 2025, vessels of 5,000 metric tons coming from Shanghai will be able to go beyond Wuhan all the way to Yichang.

The Wuhan to Yichang section of the Yangtze River stretches 612.5 kilometers – from Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge to Yichang Linjiangping – and is connected to the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

Currently, the depth of this waterway oscillates between 3.5 and 4.2 meters, meaning it can only be navigated by vessels up to 3,000 tons. By dredging it to a uniform depth of 4.5 meters, heavier vessels will be able to reach Yichang.

However, with its steep slopes, rapid currents and a dry season every year, the Zhijiang section of the Yangtze River poses a number of engineering challenges for dredgers.

The Yangtze River Yichang Waterway Bureau is running dredging projects on waterways such as the Lujia River, and on the Yangtze near Zhijiang, Jiangkou and Dabujie. Video surveillance and an automatic identification system (AIS) are used to monitor the progress of these projects.

The lower reaches of the Yangtze River – the section from Wuhan to the mouth of the Yangtze just to the northeast of Shanghai – are China's busiest inland waterway, racking up a cargo volume of more than 3.5 billion tons in 2022.

The larger vessels that ply the lower reaches of the Yangtze can get as far upriver as Zhijiang. When this new dredging project is completed, larger vessels will no longer have to unload cargo at Zhijiang and reload it onto smaller vessels or trucks to get it to Yichang.

From an Yichang perspective, being able to welcome larger ships should help reduce the cost of water transport.

Photo by Yangtze River Yichang Waterway Bureau.
Changjiang Daily’s Wang Wenhan contributed to this report.