The Three Gorges dam, situated on the Yichang section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province, is not only the most splendid concrete gravity dam in the world, but also a high- quality and reliable one, Pan Jiazheng said here Saturday.

Pan, academician of both Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering and head of the experts panel for the Three Gorges project, made the remarks at a meeting held Saturday to witness the completion of concrete placement for the Dam's main wall.

Pan said after several check-ups, no cracks have been detected on the southern-bank dam section, thanks to workers' awareness of quality and temperature control efforts in concrete placement.

Aside from the dam's main wall, the two-way, five-stage shiplocks have recorded safe passage of vessels day by day since it was opened to traffic, Pan said.

More, the project's power station chalked up safe operation for 912 days in a row. Monitoring data showed that all structures, equipment and groundwork of the project are normal and under control.

Pan revealed that some cracks have been detected on the surface of the northern-bank dam section, and they have been treated properly. They won't potentially undermine the overall structure of the dam's main wall, Pan added.

Source: Xinhua