Three Gorges Dam Project

The Three Gorges Dam Project on the Yangtze River is one of the most most massive construction projects ever undertaken. Started in 1992, with an expected completion date of 2009, it will raise the Yangtze River 175 meters (575 ft) displacing nearly 1,400,000 people

Total cost		$225 Billion plus the relocation costs for the people and artifacts

Dam Height		185 meters
Width		1.852 Km across
Reservoir Size		350 miles - from the dam at Yichang to Chingqing
Reservoir Capacity		1.39 trillion cubic feet of water

Construction Workers		20,000 average
Power Generation		28 turbines at 700 Megawatts each plus an addition 6 turbines eventually

Benefits of Building it		To control flooding. A third of China's population lives in the Yangtze River Basin Create Electricity. The Dam will produce 84.7 Billion Kwts or 15% of China's power requirements Navigation - allow bigger ships to get up the Yangtze to inland cities like Chongqing) Currently the maximum ship size on the river is 20 million tonnes. This will go up to 50 million tonnes.