Maoping rail link reaches new milestone
2023-03-20 19:03:35
By Chen Zai, Yichang International Communication Studio
There are two major ports on the Yangtze River close to the Three Gorges Dam. Downstream is Yichang’s Baiyang Port. Upstream – in verdant Zigui county – is Maoping Port. It is from Maoping Port that the area’s famous navel oranges are shipped to the world.
There are two major ports on the Yangtze River close to the Three Gorges Dam. Downstream is Yichang’s Baiyang Port. Upstream – in verdant Zigui county – is Maoping Port. It is from Maoping Port that the area’s famous navel oranges are shipped to the world.
Freight implies trucks and also trains. Since 2021, engineers working on the Maoping Port rail link have been building the Xiaopanfang Grand Bridge, the last big bridge before trains reach the port.
The columns for the bridge’s No. 6 Pier and No. 7 Pier have now been completed, and construction of the 128-meter-long continuous beam is about to begin.
Construction of the Maoping Port Logistics Railway started at the end of 2020 and is scheduled to finish in 2024. The railway starts at Yichang South Railway Station and ends at Maoping Port in Zigui county, with a total length of about 40 kilometers. It includes 25 bridges and 13 tunnels and is a key component of the Three Gorges Over-dam Transportation System, designed to help deal with the increasing demand for ships to pass through the Three Gorges ship lock.
Currently, many ships coming from the west choose to unload at Maoping Port in order to avoid queuing for six to seven hours at the ship lock. They truck goods to Baiyang Port on the downstream side of the dam where they are reloaded onto a different vessel.
The new rail link connecting upstream Maoping Port and downstream Baiyang Port will be a game-changer, improving the speed and efficiency with which goods move through the Three Gorges Hub.
Work is also progressing at a good clip on the Jiangnan Refined Oil Over-dam Pipeline, another important project in the Three Gorges Over-dam Transportation System. Its 120 km pipeline runs through a total of 18 tunnels. The project – complete with oil depots and wharves – is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. It will allow refined oil products from downstream of the Three Gorges Hub to reach the Sichuan-Chongqing area via a water-pipeline-water over-dam route.
