The Baiyang Port Dredging Railway Project Of The Three Gorges Hub Has Officially Started

Containers waiting for transfer at Baiyang Port. Provided by Yichang Construction Investment Group

The construction of the Baiyang Port Dredging Railway at the Three Gorges Hub can achieve seamless connection between rail and water transportation

The Baiyang Port Port Dredging Railway Project at the Three Gorges Hub officially started construction in Yichang City, Hubei Province on the 28th. This project is the first demonstration project in China to connect railways to dock platforms and achieve seamless rail water intermodal transportation, with a total investment of 260 million yuan.

After the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the waterway conditions of over 600 kilometers in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were changed, promoting the development of water transportation in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In 2018, the cargo volume of the Three Gorges Dam reached 144 million tons, far exceeding the designed throughput capacity. In order to solve the long-standing problem of intestinal obstruction in the Three Gorges lock, which has hindered the development of shipping on the Yangtze River, and improve logistics transportation efficiency, Yichang City takes the Three Gorges Dam as a node, with Maoping Port on the dam and Baiyang Port on the dam as core hubs, and achieves efficient intermodal transportation by constructing convenient port dredging transportation to reduce the pressure of Three Gorges lock passage.

The multimodal transportation containers of "river, sea, and rail" have arrived at Baiyang Port. Provided by Yichang Construction Investment Group

The Baiyang Port Dredging Railway Project at the Three Gorges Hub is one of the sub projects of the Three Gorges Comprehensive Transportation System. It is also a key construction project of the Yangtze River Economic Belt supervised by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Action Plan for Promoting the Connection of Railway and Water Intermodal Transport Facilities in the Yangtze River Main Line Ports. The total length of the line is 2.11 kilometers, with a shipping volume of 80000 TEU/year and a construction period of 18 months.

Xiao Yusong, President of China Railway Wuhan Survey and Design Institute, introduced that the Baiyang Port Dredging Railway at the Three Gorges Hub is the first new type of container railway in China to introduce a dock platform, which adopts a continuous operation mode of vehicle and ship direct pickup. The intelligent rail tractor developed by the project can achieve precise connection and automatic collaboration between the vehicle and the shore bridge; The railway water intermodal transportation information integration system developed by the project promotes the exchange and sharing of railway and port information, and unifies the command and scheduling of the entire process of railway water intermodal transportation operations.

Busy Baiyang Port. Provided by Yichang Construction Investment Group

Xiao Yusong stated that the project takes the port as the junction point, connecting the three transportation modes of iron, water, and public transportation into a line, truly achieving the "last mile" in hardware and software. At the same time, the successful implementation of the project's pier reinforcement technology can provide a demonstration project case for the direct access of domestic railway dedicated lines to the dock platform in the future.

Chen Shengwei, Deputy General Manager of Transportation Investment Company under Yichang Construction Investment Group, said that in the past, the dock platform and railway were in a separate state, and secondary transportation by road was needed to achieve rail water intermodal transportation. After the completion of the dredging railway, the goods will be directly packed at the dock and transported to the destination by railway, which can improve transportation efficiency by 50%.

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