In the golden September, the Xiling Gorge presents a vista of vast skies and surging river waters. On the left bank of the Three Gorges Hub, the colossal "water elevator" — the Three Gorges Ship Lift — stands majestically. On September 18, the sixth planned maintenance shutdown of the lift commenced, with sparks from welding illuminating the 217-meter-high structure and walkie-talkie commands echoing continuously. The roar of machinery intermingles with the rushing river, marking the tenth anniversary of navigation for the world's largest ship lift, which features the most complex technology and the highest operational and maintenance management difficulty.
Ten years of dedicated work have yielded abundant results. Over this decade, the equipment shutdown failure rate has dropped from an initial 11.37% at the start of navigation to below 0.7%, and the average ship transit time has been reduced from 75 minutes to approximately 50 minutes. To date, the Three Gorges Ship Lift has handled a cumulative cargo volume of 21.803 million tons and transported 2.656 million passengers, providing solid navigation support for the high-quality economic and social development of the regions along the river.
Ten Years of Perseverance Supporting Safety and Smooth Passage
Safety is the lifeline for the stable operation of the Three Gorges Ship Lift. When navigation first began, there were no mature operational and maintenance experiences from similar large ship lifts in China to draw upon, so the entire operation and management system had to be built from scratch through independent exploration. Over the past decade of intensive efforts, the Three Gorges Navigation Authority has focused on key areas such as responding to water level fluctuations, equipment maintenance, and on-site standardized operations, gradually establishing a scientific, comprehensive, and efficient operation and maintenance management system while firmly adhering to the bottom line of safe and stable operation.
Based on on-site practical combat, the team has tackled and resolved operation and maintenance challenges. "If there is no experience, then we must forge our own path." The water level in the approach channel of the Three Gorges Ship Lift is influenced by multiple factors, including flood discharge from the hub and peak load regulation at the power station, resulting in significant water level fluctuations and high frequency of changes, which can easily lead to safety hazards such as over-limit docking of the ship chamber and vessels touching the bottom. In the early stages of navigation, water level assessment lacked intelligent means and relied entirely on manual analysis and judgment. Through long-term data recording, pattern analysis, and experience summarization, the operation and maintenance team ultimately compiled the "Water Level Fluctuation Response Guide," systematically mitigating various navigation safety risks from their source.
Focusing on meticulous control, the team has woven a tight safety defense line. "There are no trivial matters in Three Gorges navigation; there is no room for the slightest negligence when faced with hidden dangers." Over the past decade, the authority has continuously improved its management systems, implemented the "machinery owner responsibility" system, conducted six planned maintenance shutdowns on a regular basis, and established a series of control mechanisms, including the "Four No's" and "Four Reports" inspection system for operational reviews, the "2323" regulations for vessel transit safety supervision, the "243" confirmation system for centralized control operations, and the "Two Questions, Four Reminders" and "Three Views, Three Guardianships" for vessels passing through. This has formed a comprehensive, multi-dimensional safety protection system covering equipment maintenance, personnel operations, vessel supervision, and emergency response, driving on-site safety management from non-existence to establishment, from refinement to continuous upgrading.
Ten Years of Tackling Challenges to Scale New Heights of Innovation
The earnest instruction that "major national equipment must be firmly in our own hands" serves as the fundamental guideline and action plan for the navigation authority personnel in deeply cultivating equipment maintenance and tackling independent innovation. By building diverse innovation platforms, the team has activated the endogenous driving force for innovation and creation. Over the past decade, the team has focused on the full lifecycle management of equipment, achieving a transformative leap from introduction and learning to independent control, and from experiential exploration to intelligent empowerment. China's first digital operation and maintenance management platform for large vertical ship lifts has been built and put into use, equipping the major national equipment with a "smart brain," enabling comprehensive control of equipment systems, real-time monitoring of operation status, and precise early warning of risks and hidden dangers.
The team independently developed a vessel speed and draft monitoring device that can automatically identify the operational status of vessels entering and exiting the ship chamber, proactively preventing and controlling safety risks and effectively enhancing the intrinsic safety level under complex working conditions. To address the industry challenge of detecting internal damage in 256 steel wire ropes, the team collaborated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology to develop China's first autonomous crawling inspection robot for steel wire ropes, achieving a detection accuracy rate exceeding 90% and efficiently resolving the core equipment maintenance pain point. Anchoring their efforts on key research directions, scientific and technological innovation achievements have flourished. Relying on the National Model Worker Innovation Studio, the team has persistently tackled five core directions: improving navigation efficiency, upgrading intelligent operation and maintenance, optimizing operational processes, responding to complex water levels, and pursuing green and low-carbon development.
Over the past decade, the team has accumulated 55 invention patents, 45 utility model patents, and 6 software copyrights. Their innovations have successively won prestigious industry awards, including the China Institute of Navigation Science and Technology Award, the China Water Transport Construction Industry Association Science and Technology Award, and the Hubei Province Science and Technology Progress Award. They have also led or participated in the formulation of 9 industry standards and published over 150 academic papers, propelling the Three Gorges Ship Lift navigation technology from industry "follower" to successful "leader."
Ten Years of Talent Development Forging a Professional Force
Major national equipment relies on talent as its foundation. The team has an average age of 36, with graduate students accounting for 30%, making it a young, highly qualified, and specialized core tackling force. Over the past decade, young backbone members have been tempered and matured through frontline practice, achieving mutual empowerment and synchronized progress between the safe and stable operation of major national equipment and the cultivation of a young talent echelon. By broadening growth and development channels, the team has built a ladder for youth advancement. The team regularly implements mentoring mechanisms, position A/B roles, and rotational exchanges, conducts orderly selection of youth technical leaders and star job evaluations, and dynamically establishes a categorized and tiered talent reserve pool.
Relying on distinctive carriers such as the Model Worker Innovation Studio and the "Ascending Higher, Sailing Farther" lecture hall, the team regularly conducts innovation practices, skills competitions, and technical exchanges, comprehensively consolidating the professional skills and comprehensive qualities of all members. Additionally, using support for the Wujiang cascade ship lifts' technical support as a practical training platform, the team hones its skills and abilities in cross-regional, multi-scenario practical tasks. Ten years of dedicated talent cultivation have yielded remarkable results in building the talent echelon. Outstanding technical talents represented by Xie Qilong, an expert enjoying the special allowance of the State Council, and Zou Binbin, a recipient of the National May Day Labor Medal, have emerged. A cumulative total of 35 individuals have received provincial-level or above commendations. The team has been awarded titles such as One-Star National Youth Civilization, Advanced Collective of the National Transportation System, and Hubei Province Workers' Pioneer, and has won first prize in the Hubei Province Youth Science and Technology Tackling Team Job Contribution Competition and other honors.
"Having held the frontline for over a decade, I have grown together with the Three Gorges Ship Lift. The ten-year tempering of this major national equipment has shaped who we are today." This young team has, through ten years of steadfast dedication and practical work, successfully completed the magnificent leap from "being able to take over" to "managing well" this major national equipment.
Ten Years of Openness Contributing the Three Gorges Solution
A single tree does not make a forest; only when many trees come together does spring arrive. The Three Gorges Ship Lift not only effectively ensures the safe, unobstructed, and efficient navigation of the Yangtze Golden Waterway but also, through ten years of continuous innovation and practical exploration, has distilled a replicable, promotable, and exportable "Three Gorges Solution" for high-dam navigation operation and maintenance. Adhering to openness, mutual learning, and win-win cooperation, the team has deepened Sino-German technical cooperation. Since the establishment of a regular technical exchange and cooperation mechanism between China and Germany in the field of ship lifts in 2011, more than 16 in-depth professional exchanges have been conducted over the past decade.
In the early stages of development, China learned from and absorbed advanced foreign technical experience. As a large amount of original operation and maintenance technology and practical experience accumulated, China's mature technologies and achievements have gradually been adopted and referenced by the German side. Currently, the operation and maintenance technology of the Three Gorges Ship Lift has been successfully applied to the new Niederfinow Ship Lift project in Germany. Over the past decade, cooperation between the two sides has progressed from learning through borrowing and complementing each other's strengths, to equal exchange and mutual empowerment, and then to technology export and experience sharing, continuously enhancing China's industry discourse power and technical influence in the field of high-dam navigation worldwide. Strengthening industry radiation and empowerment has promoted the coordinated development of the Yangtze and Wujiang mainstream and tributaries. Since October 2021, the Three Gorges Ship Lift Management Office has dispatched 22 batches and 91 person-times of technical personnel to provide targeted support for the construction and operation of the Wujiang cascade ship lifts in Guizhou, offering comprehensive specialized services in equipment maintenance, defect rectification, technical guidance, and talent cultivation.
After five years of precise assistance and dedicated empowerment, the core operational indicators of the five ship lifts in the Wujiang River Basin, including the number of operation locks, the number of vessels passing through, and the cargo volume transiting locks, have all maintained a stable annual growth rate of over 40%. The equipment failure and obstruction rate has been strictly controlled below 3%, and the local navigation professional talent echelon is gradually taking shape and maturing. A new water transport landscape of linked and coordinated development between the Yangtze and Wujiang mainstream and tributaries is slowly unfolding. Ten years of arduous trekking and persistent action, with every step representing accumulation; every leap forward is driven by relentless innovation and diligent work. Standing at the new starting point of the tenth anniversary of navigation, the Three Gorges navigation personnel will continue to steer with their original aspiration as the rudder, innovation as the wings, and practical work as the sail, forging ahead on the journey of high-quality development.