The Three Gorges Project is ready for trial navigation scheduled on Monday morning.
Two preliminary tests have been done as the water storage in the reservoir completed on June 10, five days ahead of the schedule. A single ship succeeded in passing through the reservoir on June 13. On June 14, another test navigation of a shipping team was also crowned with a success.
The two pretests were both satisfying, especially in the interaction between the ship, the water and the lock, said Zhang Qingsong, director of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Navigational Bureau.
The inspection on the ship lock would continue even after the trial navigation, added Zhang. The second phase of trial navigation will be done when the water flow of the Yangtze River reached 40,000 cubic meters per second this July.
The ship lock is decorated with colored flags and banners. The main venue for the opening ceremony is set in the third lock operation room and venues for tourists to watch the ceremony haveall been settled.
Three major media in China, Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television and China National Radio are all ready for the live broadcast of the trial navigation.
The ship lock is expected to open to all ships on June 20, earlier than scheduled, as many ships are stuck near the Three Gorges Dam due to the water storage.
The ban on night navigation in the reservoir from the Three Gorges Dam to Wanzhou in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was lifted at 8:00 am on June 13 after a lapse of 30 days. However,night navigation is still forbidden to those ships that pass the lock for the first time.