Three Gorges Dam: Cracks (3meters long) in have reopened while filling its reservoir

Probe International ^ | May 30, 2003 | Kelly Haggart

[yankeedame]

Three Gorges Probe

May 30/2003

Cracks in the dam have reopened, senior inspector says.

by Kelly Haggart

As China prepares to begin filling the Three Gorges reservoir on Sunday, a senior member of the project inspection team has acknowledged that some of the cracks that were repaired at great expense on the upstream face of the dam have reopened.

A view of Three Gorges

Pan Jiazheng, one of China’s top engineers, said that experts who took part in a final inspection of the dam before it starts holding back water “have been particularly concerned about several issues around which further studies are needed.

“During the inspection, for example, we found that some of the vertical cracks on the dam that were repaired have reopened, even though we put a great deal of money and effort into the repair work.

“It appears that during the concrete pouring, we put too much emphasis on the goal of achieving a very high degree of strength. But it has turned out that a high degree of strength does not necessarily mean good quality in a concrete dam. We have achieved an unnecessarily high degree of strength and a lot of cracks in the dam by pouring too much concrete and spending a great deal of money.

Three Gorge dam construction, July 1999

“I feel that it’s too early to be proud of ourselves, and we have a long way to go. As we enter the third phase of the dam construction, I hope we will do our best to build a first-class project rather than a dam with 10-metre-long cracks!”

The candid remarks by Mr. Pan, who is a member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences and former vice-director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, were made in a speech at the closing ceremony of the May 12-21 inspection, and posted on the Web site of the Changjiang Water Resources Commission.

Mr. Pan also warned that the abnormally severe floods expected this summer pose another major challenge. “It’s true that in the decade since we started building the dam, we have experienced many types of floods. But this year’s floods will be really serious. ...

“All the structures we have built will be subjected to a big test, since the Yangtze floodwater is famous for its huge volume and velocity and mighty, destructive power. Of course we ought to be well prepared for powerful, disastrous floods. Please, let us never lower our guard in this respect.”

Mr. Pan told fellow Three Gorges inspectors in November that the 39 billion cubic metres of water to be stored in the reservoir, and natural forces such as floods, earthquakes and landslides, will be the project's "real examiners" and that they will show no mercy.

Landslide and soil erosion along Three Gorge

"They are ready to take their revenge and exploit any mistakes and misjudgments that we make in design, construction, manufacturing and installation, as well as project management," he said.

Numerous cracks in the dam were discovered in October, 1999, but only revealed in March last year by the popular South Wind Window (Nanfang chuang) magazine, a sister publication of the Guangzhou Daily (Guangzhou Ribao). After visiting the dam, reporter Zhao Shilong wrote that he had seen cracks stretching from top to bottom of the huge concrete structure.

After the problem was brought to light, Lu Youmei, general manager of the Three Gorges Project Development Corp., acknowledged in Three Gorges Project Daily (Sanxia gongcheng bao) that cracks had appeared on the whole upstream face of the 483-metre-long spillway section, and that they extended from 1 metre to 1.25 metres into the dam.

Everything below the 175-metre marker on the hillside will be flooded by the Three Gorges reservoir.

For his part, Zhang Chaoran, chief engineer of the Three Gorges Project Development Corp., said: “This is a normal phenomenon, and cracks such as these can be observed in almost all large dams around the world.” But he also said: "Our problem was that we failed to take the cracks seriously at first. We didn’t think they would develop so quickly or so dramatically, beyond our expectations.”

Wanxian district, Chongqing municipality The whole of the lower section will be flooded by the Three Gorges reservoir.

[yankeedame]

Sorry,gang, I forgot to include this into the above post:
( map from: http://www.irn.org/programs/threeg/map.shtml)

[randog]

Keep a lifeboat handy.

[Alberta's Child]

They had a great show on this project a few months back on either PBS or the Discovery Channel. It gave a pretty damning view of Chinese society in general -- just a bunch of sheeple in these towns and villages along the river waiting to be moved by the government to higher ground, then complaining about the quality of their new accommodations.

Actually, it reminded me of New York City.

[sailor4321]

They forgot to put in ground tiger bone?

[Lee Heggy]

"We have achieved an unnecessarily high degree of strength and a lot of cracks in the dam by pouring too much concrete and spending a great deal of money."

Lesson #1
Concrete should not be diluted with humanitarian food stuffs supplied by corrupt officials who desire to achieve an high degree of strength in their bank accounts.

[Thinkin' Gal]

What do Chicom dams and Russian airplanes have in common?

This question may answer itself in short order.

[dead]

I feel that it’s too early to be proud of ourselves

LOL!

[Fzob]

But it has turned out that a high degree of strength does not necessarily mean good quality in a concrete dam.

I knew this 25 years ago working a as mason laborer during the summer. If it is really true that they missed such an obvious element of the design, it could be one of the greatest enginering blunders of all time.

[Alberta's Child]

Sounds to me like they "achieved a high degree of strength" by using a mix of cement and aggregate that would make the dam stronger than originally designed, but failed to take into account the fact that changing the cement/aggregate mixture may have changed the weight of the dam itself.

When designing structural elements like steel frames, footings, concrete foundations, etc., they have to be designed not only to hold up their own weight in addition to whatever load they are expected to bear.

[Pyrion]

The cracks in the dam symbolize the cracks in Chinese society. As the dam deteriorates under its own weight, so will Communism in China. :)

[Gman]

"A million proletariats here, a million proletariats there. Pretty soon it starts to add up to a real loss of life!" - Jiang Zemin

[DEPUTYMAYTAG]

So,this story won't hold water. sarcasm>

[Alberta's Child]

LOL.

[Lee Heggy]

"Damn!"

[Paleo Conservative]

My theory of how to deal with the Chinese if they ever try to take over Taiwan is to knock out the Three Gorges Dam as soon as possible. This would do several things. First it would devastate China's transportation system and cause much damage to its infrastructure. Second there would be an immediate decrease in the amount of electrical power available throughout the country. This would decrease the power available for radar systems and civilian radio transmitters which could be used by passive radar systems to detect stealth aircraft. Third it would divert military away forces from Taiwan to deal with the effects of a flooding.

[skeeter]

I'm beginning to suspect this Three Gorges Project isn't as much about power production as it is about population control. Anyone living downriver ought to consider outfitting their home with pontoons.

[South40]

Apparently, the Communist Chinese couldn't get Clinton to sell them our dam building technology.

Score one for America.

[Psalm 73]

Sooo, I guess when the catasrophe occurs in a year or so, the US will pony-up billions to rescue the Red Chinese from their own incompetance?
Wadda' ya' think?

[DainBramage]

Confuscious say "Big dam cracks make for big damn floods".

[Jewels1091]

Sure wouldn't want to live below that dam!!! Sounds like they know there is trouble, but aren't going to do anything about it, so when that dam goes, which it will, and thousands are killed, guess who will go in and spend millions to help them out...I can't imagine what will happen when that thing goes, talk about dooms day.

[Abe Froman]

"That's the biggest damn dam I've ever seen....."

------Tom Green

[MattinNJ]

I saw that show and thought the same thing. Communism at it's best- massive expenditures, mindless subjects, and a project that you know will be a monumental disaster. It was clear that the engineers had no idea what they were doing. IIRC, they didn't even account for silt buildup. When this thing gives I wonder how many millions will die.

The only large scale communist project that I know of that worked was when Stalin moved all the industry east before the Germans could destroy it.

[CAPPSMADNESS]

LOL!!!

[MikeWUSAF]

You would think the Chinese would learn from Russia's Stalinist past.

Large steel factories in the middle of nowhere, canals dug by hand…

"The ghost of an executed engineer" By Loren Graham - A must read

[Thinkin' Gal]

"Big dam cracks make for big damn floods".

There's a joke about plumbers in there.

[meatloaf]

It's not the weight. Usually a higher ratio of concrete to aggregate is needed for higher strengths. Unfortunately that leads to more heat generated by the concrete as it cures. The stress created by expansion and contraction often causes cracks in slabs. That's why expansion joints are cut into slabs. Can't do that with a dam.

With mass concrete in a dam you've got to be careful. On many jobs with large concrete pours, ice is used in the mix during the summer to control the temperature. The Chinese seem to have missed something in the rush.

[ChromeDome]

A couple of points:

1. You assume that the Chinese government actually cares about its people.
2. I doubt that the US would result to such extreme measures. With the devastation such a flood would unleash, we might as well use a nuke.


Some questions:
1. I assume that this is a hydro power dam, but I don't remember seeing anything specifically saying this. Assuming that it is a power source, its in the middle of know where. Do they have the power infrastructure to send power it would generate?
2. Why not hit the local interconnection points to the power grid rather than taking out the damn itself? (See point 2 above).


Regards,
ChromeDome

[ChromeDome]

errr....

know where = no where (i.e. BFE)

[Cooter]

This is too series a subject to be cracking jokes...

[Dr Warmoose]

This is what happens when one outsources engineering and labor to China. :)

[Think free or die]

I hope we're not planning to bring those Chinese engineers to the US on work visas . . .

[AngryJawa]

I see dead people...lots of 'em. Chinese disasters are never small.

[Orbiting_Rosie's_Head]

I can't wait to see their space program...

[G Larry]

Next year's map of the Yangzi River won't have nearly as many bends and twists in it.

Prime surfing locations will be further inland than usual.

[Maringa]

Also, the higher the concrete strength, the more brittle it is and less tolerant to ground shifts, earthquakes, etc. If the steel ratio is low, you would have catastrophic failures rather than slow ones where a slab, column, etc, begins to show weakness before ultimate failure. If this dam fails, it will be quick, with no warning...

[capitan_refugio]

Chongqing = Chungking

Chungking was the Nationalist Chinese capitol during World War II.

[capitan_refugio]

"If this dam fails, it will be quick, with no warning."

Not if ... when!

[Carolina]

The Chinese seem to have missed something in the rush.

This seems to be the case with all Chinese products that I have had the misfortune to buy in the past, from garden trowels to box fans, etc. I refuse to buy any more Chinese products.

I know, this is off-topic.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Another aspect to consider...how big a drop did the aggregate mix take from the pump to its final disposition. The stone can sink to the bottom of the pour if there is too much drop, making for an unhealthy layer of portland cement without aggregate to cling to.

[Enduring Freedom]

Socialism is an affliction with a root cause of a failure to deal with reality.

This is nature's wake-up call for those who think they can lie their way through life.

[AngryJawa]

"This seems to be the case with all Chinese products that I have had the misfortune to buy in the past, from garden trowels to box fans, etc."

This is known as "Harbor Freight Syndrome". Don't ask me why I even browse their catalogs anymore.

[SauronOfMordor]

so when that dam goes, which it will, and thousands are killed,

I'm thinking it will be more like "millions" dead. That river goes thru a very densely populated part of China, with Shanghai at the mouth of the river

[AppyPappy]

One earthquake and ..POW.. available cheap real estate

[SierraWasp]

I'd take it easy on all this gloating and clucking, folks. This just SMACKS of EnvironMental Communutty anti-dam propoganda! Just like the PBS program did!!!

This hype around the cracks and all the other negativity may have just enough truth to give these "Friends of the River" and the off-shoot "International Rivers Nutwork" (shown as the source for the map out of Berkeley, CA) a needed platform for their typical fear campaigns.

In their abject hatred of hydro projects they consider a frightful infringement on Mother Nature and the commercial whitewater rafting enterprise that supports their zeal... ANY excuse and ANY dissenter in ANY project is grist for their propoganda mill!

I also note in the info provided, references to cracks (3 meters long) then (10 meters long) then (from top to bottom)!!!

Be careful not to be taken in by too much of this crappola. I'm certainly no fan of the Chinese government, but I know these anti-dam fanatics well. They started their hate in the 1970's here in CA when the New Melones reservoir couldn't be stopped even though one of their idiots made himself famous by chaining himself to a rock to get Governor Moonbeam to plead with Jimma Carter to stop the filling after claiming that rare "daddy longleg" spiders would be wiped out.

It's truly a pathetic obsession with these people that started even earlier with Wallace Stegner's (Kennedy Admin.) failed efforts to stop the Glen Canyon Dam in AZ. Stegner also insulted Ronald Reagan repeatedly in his books and PBS also has a program in their archieves that all of you should see some day. It's enough to gag a maggot!!!

[Alberta's Child]

Confuscious say "Crack kills."

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

It sounds like a catastrophe just waiting to happen. When the dam bursts, are we supposed to bail them out? Will the US throw $15-billion at China as we did with Africa? Why do we have to keep paying for the whole damn world?

[Alberta's Child]

I thought the primary function of this damn was flood control. Power generation and commerce were secondary benefits -- the documentary I saw pointed out how many cities upriver of the dam would be accessible to large ocean-going vessels with the dam in place, thereby providing a prime are for growth in the manfacturing sector.

[AFreeBird]

If they had studied Hoover Dam, they would have found out that they ran cold water pipes throughout the dam to help control the heat during the curing process, which, IIRC is still actually going on, even today.

[Our man in washington]

What will China soon have something in common with River Phoenix and Rock Hudson.

The cause of its death will be listed as: "bad crack."

Seriously, how much do you want to bet when the dam does burst it will be blamed on global warming?