The reporter learned from the Department of Transport of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that the Pinglu Canal, as a landmark project to accelerate the construction of a powerful transportation country and the backbone project of the new land-sea channel in the west, started construction of the entire line today (May 5). After the completion of the Pinglu Canal, it will become the shortest, most economical and most convenient passage to the sea in southwest China.
The construction of the Pinglu Canal began today
The Pinglu Canal starts from the mouth of the Pingtang River in Xijinku District, Hengzhou City, Nanning, Guangxi, and enters Beibu Bay along the Qinjiang River through Luwu Town, Lingshan County, Qinzhou, with a total length of 134.2 kilometers and a design annual one-way passage capacity of 8900 million tons. The project mainly includes the renovation of waterways, shipping hubs, water conservancy facilities and cross-river supporting projects along the route, with a total estimated project budget of about 727.<> billion yuan.
After completion, the Pinglu Canal will not only support the development of Guangxi, but also become the shortest, most economical and most convenient passage to the sea in southwest China. Due to the construction of the Pinglu Canal to attract the transfer of freight volume of the existing channel, the transportation cost reduction can reach more than 52.<> billion yuan per year, which will play an important role in supporting the foreign trade economy and domestic demand freight business of many provinces in China in the future, and will vigorously promote the industrial development of regions along the route.
The first phase of the three hubs has been completed
In fact, as a key project in the construction of the Pinglu Canal, the three major shipping hubs of Madao, Qishi and Qingnian began construction in August last year, and the first phase has been completed.
There is a drop of about 65 meters between the water surface of the Xijin reservoir area at the beginning of the Pinglu Canal and the sea level of the estuary, and on the 134.2-kilometer canal, it is necessary to build a cascade hub and divide the canal channel into several steps to adjust the water level drop and ensure smooth and safe navigation.
After many scientific demonstrations and rigorous analysis, the designers finally decided to set up three major hubs on the Pinglu Canal channel: Horse Road, Qishi and Youth.
The key to connecting the Xijiang Shipping Trunk Line and Beibu Gulf Port is to open up the watershed, so that water cargo from Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou can go to sea from Beibu Gulf, which is about 560 kilometers shorter than from Guangzhou Port.
The horse road hub of the first step of the Pinglu Canal is located in the watershed section, with a maximum height difference of 29.6 meters between the upstream and downstream water levels, and the channel passes through the mountains, and the stability of the mountains on both sides is crucial to the safety of the canal's navigation.
As the second cascade of the Pinglu Canal, the maximum height difference between the water level and the upstream is also 27 meters, where the Pinglu Canal straightens and widens the existing Qinjiang River channel to meet the navigation needs of 5000,<>-ton ships in the future.
It will be built as the world's largest inland waterway water lock
The three major hubs solve the problem of water level drop along the entire line of the Pinglu Canal, and at the same time, they must build double-line locks in the three major hubs to ensure the safe passage of ships. The reporter learned that the Pinglu Canal will build the world's largest inland water lock to reduce the water consumption of the lock's operation.
The main body of the horse road hub lock covers an area of 18,5 square meters, the highest structure of the lock is 65.5 meters, and the amount of concrete used is nearly 350.<> million cubic meters.
When completed, the Padao Lock will be the world's largest inland water lock. In the huge "body" of the lock, there are water corridors as complex as human blood vessels. Through the three-level provincial pool, when the ship passes through the gate, the upstream water is not directly discharged into the downstream through the water transmission corridor, but connects the three provincial pools through the water transmission corridor, temporarily stores the water, compensates the water level in the gate when the next time the gate is opened, and fully recycles and comprehensively utilizes water resources. Through the new water transmission system and efficient operation control system, the three hub locks can save 50%~60% of water consumption.
Take multiple measures to build a green ecological canal
The Pinglu Canal is a major project focusing on the development of shipping, combining water supply, irrigation, flood control, and improving the water ecological environment. Where does the water from the canal come from? Where does the excavated soil go? How can the ecology along the coast be protected?
The reporter learned that the total amount of water resources in the Yujiang River is abundant, but the distribution of abundance and drought is uneven, and the water of the Yujiang River alone cannot maintain the normal operation of the Pinglu Canal. According to the plan, the water used by the Pinglu Canal will be dispatched through the Baise Water Conservancy Hub in the near future, and the water will be diverted from the Nanpan River in the long term combined with the water resources allocation project around Beibu Bay.
In addition, the total amount of earth and rock excavated in the Pinglu Canal Project is close to 3 million cubic meters, and their destination is also a problem for builders.
The length of the Qinzhou section of the Pinglu Canal accounts for more than 80% of the length of the entire canal, and Qinzhou is the origin of Nixing pottery, one of the four famous potteries in China, and the raw materials for making Nixing pottery mainly come from the soil on both sides of the canal.
In addition to providing high-quality raw materials for Nixing pottery, the earth and rock excavated by the canal construction are more used for land consolidation, land reclamation, and green building materials manufacturing.
In order to protect wild animals such as spotted forest beavers, ocelots, and red-bellied squirrels living on both sides of the Pinglu Canal, a special animal passage bridge was built at the watershed to facilitate the migration of animals on both sides of the river. In the Youth Lock, a migration channel has also been built for eels, sea bass and other fish, which is also the first fish ecological channel on the Qin River.
In addition, after the opening of operation, the seawater in the downstream channel of the youth hub will trace up with the opening and closing of the locks, affecting the urban and agricultural irrigation water in Qinzhou. The construction of the lock adopts salt water traceability control technology and intelligent monitoring technology, which can minimize the impact of seawater traceability.
The new channel connecting the river to the sea has brought new opportunities for regional economic development
The Pinglu Canal should not only be built into an ecological canal, but also become a dynamic economic belt. In the future, the tight shipping dilemma of the Xijiang River will be alleviated, and the new channel connecting the river to the sea will bring new opportunities for regional economic development.
At Liugang Logistics Co., Ltd. in Liuzhou, Guangxi, trucks full of steel are ready to drive to Guigang, 200 kilometers away. The person in charge of the company told reporters that now Liuzhou has a large amount of steel in Guigang every year through multimodal transportation, along the Xijiang channel to Guangzhou to transfer port and then to East China, not only there are many turnover, but also ship jams occur from time to time.
After the completion of the Pinglu Canal, it will directly connect the Xijiang Shipping Trunk Line and the Beibu Gulf Port, opening up a new channel for southbound water transport in the western region, and the cargo going to sea through this will shorten the voyage into the sea by about 560 kilometers compared with the current sea from Guangzhou, and it is expected to save more than 52.<> billion yuan in transportation costs for the areas along the new land-sea channel in the west.
At present, Nanning is building a new industrial city in the east to connect with the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Cities along the Pinglu Canal are laying out industrial clusters such as green fine chemicals, high-end equipment manufacturing, characteristic agricultural products, and new building materials, and taking advantage of the logistics and capital flow brought by the smooth passage to develop emerging business formats such as cross-border e-commerce and agricultural and sideline products e-commerce, and build a modern industrial system in the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt.
The scale of China's water transport infrastructure ranks first in the world
Water transport undertakes a large number of cross-regional cargo transportation and about 95% of foreign trade material transportation in China. In recent years, China's port scale and inland shipping capacity have achieved leapfrog improvement, and the scale of water transport infrastructure ranks first in the world.
In the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, the implementation of major projects for the systematic management of trunk waterways has been accelerated. The 12.5-meter deep-water channel below Nanjing, the first phase of the Jingjiang waterway project, and the 6-meter deep-water channel improvement project of the Wuhan-Anqing section have been completed one after another. The construction of the high-grade waterway network in the Yangtze River Delta has been accelerated in an all-round way, and the compliance rate of the waterway network in the Yangtze River Delta has exceeded 70%. The main tributaries of the Yangtze River, the Minjiang, Jialing, Wujiang, Xiangjiang, Hanjiang, and Ganjiang rivers, as well as the main stream of the Huaihe River and the Shaying River, have been comprehensively promoted in high-grade waterway improvement projects.
In the Xijiang Shipping Trunk Line, another important trunk line of China's "four vertical, four horizontal and two networks" national high-grade waterway, important progress has been made in the expansion and upgrading of the waterway, and the 3000,<>-ton waterway below Guigang and Guangdong in Guangxi has been completed. The high-grade waterway network in the Pearl River Delta has been basically completed, the conditions of Liujiang and Qianjiang waterways have been greatly improved, and the construction of navigation facilities at the Baise water conservancy hub of Youjiang has been accelerated.
By the end of 2022, China's domestic waterways had 12,8 kilometers of navigable mileage, of which more than 1,6 kilometers were high-grade waterways. In 2022, China's waterways will complete about 85.5 billion tons of freight, of which the freight volume of the Yangtze River trunk line will exceed 30 billion tons, ranking first in the world of inland shipping for more than ten consecutive years.
At the same time, the construction of first-class ports has made remarkable progress, and China has built world-class port groups such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The transportation system of major goods such as coal, oil, grain, iron ore and containers is rational and efficient. In 2022, China's ports will complete a cargo throughput of 156.8 billion tons, and among the world's top ten ports and top ten container ports, China's ports will account for 8 seats and 7 seats respectively.
Large transportation capacity and small energy consumption, and the comparative advantages of water transport are significant
Water transport is an ancient, modern and dynamic mode of transportation, with large capacity, low cost, low energy consumption, and significant comparative advantages.
In terms of capacity, the capacity of a 1500,25-ton inland river ship is equivalent to 60 58-ton train cars and 26 4000-ton trucks. At present, the average deadweight of ships passing through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River exceeds 2500,<> tons/vessel, and the inland river vessels in Guangxi exceed <>,<> tons/vessel.
From the perspective of transportation costs, the average freight per ton kilometer of goods transported by Yangtze River is about 0.02~0.03 yuan, which is significantly lower than other modes of transportation.
From the perspective of energy consumption, according to relevant studies, the energy consumption ratio of highway, railway and Yangtze River water transport per 14,2 tons of kilometers of transportation turnover is about 1:<>:<>, with the large-scale development of ships and the promotion of new energy ships, the green advantages of water transport will be more prominent.
At the same time, water transport occupies a small area, waterway construction mainly uses natural rivers, basically does not occupy or occupies a small amount of land, waterway improvement can also blow land reclamation or restore the coast.
China has a mainland coastline of more than 1,8 kilometers, with more than 1000,2200 rivers with a basin area of 38,6 square kilometers or more, with a total length of 2035,2 kilometers, distributed in the Yangtze River, Pearl River, Huaihe River and Songliao four major navigable water systems, rich in water transport resources. In 5, China will build about <>,<> kilometers of national high-grade waterways of "four verticals, four horizontals and two networks".
The construction of the new land-sea channel in the west presses the "fast forward button"
With the construction of the entire Pinglu Canal, a number of railways, highways, water transport, aviation and other infrastructure facilities are also accelerating, and the construction of a new land-sea channel in western China has pressed the "fast forward button".
Recently, the Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway is being jointly adjusted and tested, which is an important part of the "Bao(Yin) Hai Channel", one of the main channels of the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway in China's "medium and long-term railway network planning", and is also the first high-speed railway in Guangxi with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, and the passage time between the two cities can be compressed to about 5 hours after opening.
At Qinzhou Port East Station, a key node of the new land-sea channel in the west, the rail-sea combined transport goods are loaded and disembarked and entered and leaving the port 24 hours a day without stopping, and there are up to 21 rail-sea combined transport trains arriving and departing every day. Up to now, the rail-sea combined transport train of the new land-sea corridor in the west has radiated to 17 stations in 60 cities in 115 provinces in China, reaching 119 ports in 393 countries and regions around the world. As of May 5 this year, the rail-sea combined transport train of the new land-sea corridor in the west transported 19,31 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 8%. In 14, more than 2022,8800 rail-sea combined transport trains will be operated in the new land-sea corridor in the west, and the Beibu Gulf Port will complete a cargo throughput of 3 million tons and a container throughput of 71.702 million TEUs.
At present, the key project of the transportation trunk line of the western land-sea new channel - the Guizhou section of the Luzhou Xuyong-Bijie railway is laying tracks, the second phase of the Qinzhou automated container terminal and the reconstruction and expansion project of Wuxu Airport are accelerating, and the expansion project of the international container hub in the Yangpu area of Hainan and the Baise water conservancy hub are accelerating, and by 2025, promote the basic formation of a comprehensive transportation system of the new western land-sea corridor with north-south connection, land-sea linkage, openness and sharing, strong radiation and synergy.
(CCTV reporter Zhai Zhuang, Cong Weina, Li Weidai, Liao Mi, Guangxi TV)