The world-class Xiaolangdi Water Control Project is one with the longest dam, the largest storage capacity, and the most difficult construction on the Yellow River.

The power station has six 300,000-KW mixed flow water turbine generating units with a total installed generating capacity of 1.8 million KW. The clay soil core wall rockfill dam is 160 meters high and 1,667 meters wide.

Along with eminent water intake towers and spectacular water outlets, the Xiaolangdi project exercises many functions such as flood control, reducing the danger of ice runs and reducing silt, as well as supplying water, irrigating farmland and generating power.

As early as 1954, the Xiaolangdi project was included in a national plan to comprehensively harness and develop the river. In February 1987, the State Planning Commission listed the project as a water control project. On April 9, 1991, the project was approved at the Fourth Session of the Seventh National People's Congress and was listed as one of the key projects during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period.

It is one of the most complicated projects in the world, confirmed by both foreign and Chinese experts. Engineering work on the main part involved moving 21.22 million cubic meters of earth and stone and pouring 530,000 cubic meters of concrete. Such a scale is only next to the Three Gorges Project.

Construction took 11 years: three years for preparation and eight years for the construction of the main part of the project. The early period of construction of the Xiaolangdi project started in September 1991. On Oct. 28, 1997, the river was successfully blocked. The first generating units began operation in January 2000, and the whole project was completed by the end of 2001.

From 2002 to 2008, the Xiaolangdi project successively passed the safety technical appraisal, the preliminary acceptance of the completion of the project and immigration, and the special acceptance of water and soil conservation, engineering archives, fire-fighting facilities, environmental protection, and labor safety and health. On April 7, 2009, it successfully passed the completion acceptance.

Since going into operation, it has exerted tremendous social, economic and ecological benefits, and made significant contributions to ensuring the safety of lives and property in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, promoting economic and social development, and protecting the ecology and environment.

Print E-mail

Related