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A new ship lift, which is essentially an elevator for boats, is now operational at the 3-Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River.

A photo taken on Nov. 13 shows the Three Gorges Shiplift on the Yangtze River in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

First completed in 2003, the Three Gorges Dam eventually became the world's largest hydropower project.

But it was also built along China's longest and busiest waterway, the Yangtze River, meaning vessels still need to get up and down the vital waterway.

Like most dam projects, a tiered lock system was first created, allowing ships to slowly make their way to the downstream portion of the river, which is over 100-meters above where the water exits the dam.

Taking the lock system normally requires around 3 to 4 hours to complete.

But with the completion of the ship lift in September, making it past the 3-Gorges Dam now only takes around 40-minutes.

Wu Xiaoyun with the Three Gorges Dam corporation says the design they took from German firm Siemens has been adapted, not only with Chinese components, but also to the unique conditions of the 3-Gorges project itself.

"The temperature of the tower facing the sun is higher than the other. The temperature difference can actually changes the distance between the two towers. The lift carriage can also be distorted by temperature changes. We have to do a lot of calculations to accommodate the two changing factors. The higher the lifting journey is, the more difficult it is. The lift this one is modeled on in Germany is much easier because its lifting distance is only about 30 metres," said Wu.

While the new ship-lift system will make it quicker for traffic to get up and down the river, Xie Ze with the Three Gorges Corporation says the new 'boat elevator' is not a replacement of the lock system.

"The Three Gorges Lift is not designed to divert transport capacity from the ship locks. We divert passenger vessels to the ship-lift," said Xie, "while commercial vessels are directed toward the locks. This actually helps increase passengers' safety, as ships which spend a lot of time in the locks are more likely to catch fire. And putting fires out in the locks is harder than it would be on the ship-lift."

Wu Xiaoyun with Three Gorges says the new ship-lift is going to remain a challenge for them, even now that its operational.

"It costs a lot to ensure high safety standards, on top of creating the designs, the production, installation, adjustments, maintenance and so on," added Wu, "all of these are for safety, as passenger ships have zero-tolerance for accidents. In the future, maintenance workers need to get familiar with the whole system, as they'll need to know how to replace broken components and parts. They'll also have to anticipate purchases for replacements in advance. It's going to take a long time to learn how this new system will work for us."

The new ship-lift at the Three Gorges Dam is operational 22-hours a day, and is able to make 18 trips up and down.

Authorities hope it will be operational 335 days a year, with the 30-days off allotted for maintenance work.

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