Cofferdam Downstream Three Gorges Dam To Be Blasted Away

The last section of a cofferdam built to facilitate construction of the Three Gorges Project from the southern bank of the Yangtze will be blasted away in seconds after 3:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Preparatory work for blowing up this section of the cofferdam downstream the Three Gorges Dam has completed, sources with the Three Gorges Headquarters with China Gezhouba (Group) Corporation, executor of the mission, said Tuesday.

An engineer in charge of the explosion task told Xinhua that they had made 482 holes in the 447.45-meter-long downstream cofferdam and would use 20.5 tons of emulsified explosives, plus 3,896 detonators, to dismantle the temporary protective structure from the upper part.

Civil engineering for downstream power generator workshops on the southern bank of the Yangtze was completed early this year, and a special panel in charge of quality control of the State Council approved the plan for dismantling the cofferdam after having made on-the-spot investigation into the construction site of the Three Gorges Project.

"The earth-and-stone work to be dismantled will total 20,000 cubic meters and the entire explosion will last for 12.36 seconds, " said the engineer.