The second-phase rebuilding and repair of the breached Yangtze River embankment at the Jiujiang section in east China's Jiangxi Province has been completed.

Xiao Ming, vice director of the city's water conservancy bureau, said in Jiujiang yesterday that the project cost a total of 12.7 million yuan and the new dike, stretching 479 meters, was built with reinforced concrete.

The dike passed the assessment of last year's severe floods along the river, which is the longest in China, Xiao said.

The original earth dike was designed in the 1970s, the official said, on August 7, 1998, a 61-meter-long section of the dike was breached.

Thanks to strenuous effort, the breach was cemented in five days after sinking ten boats and dumping 9,400 cubic meters of rocks, 2,700 tons of grains and ten vessels, which were valued 90 million yuan.

(Eastday.com.cn 06/16/2001)