On May 1st, the Pinglu Canal reached a key engineering milestone. The Qingnian Junction, the canal hub closest to the sea outlet, breached its cofferdam to divert water, marking the entry of the Pinglu Canal hub project into the water commissioning phase. To ensure the safe and efficient progress of lock filling and commissioning, as well as the removal of remaining earth and rock, the construction management team chose to breach the No. 2 cofferdam downstream of the lock first. The filling process is expected to last about one week.
The Qingnian Junction had already initiated dry single-unit and single-lock commissioning on March 18th. During over a month of dry commissioning, the Pinglu Canal construction management team conducted multiple rounds of dry tests on various systems of the lock, including hydraulic and electromechanical systems. The dry commissioning focused on verifying the operating posture of the gate body, the mechanical performance of the hydraulic hoist, and the electrical controls, ensuring all indicators met design requirements. According to the process schedule, the water commissioning phase will sequentially carry out water-based single-head equipment commissioning and joint system commissioning. The main tasks include checking the sealing performance of gates and valves under water conditions, adjusting operating parameters, optimizing gate and valve synchronization and /closing speeds, and verifying whether the performance of lock equipment and the centralized control system meet the requirements for safe ship passage under design conditions, ensuring the lock meets navigation standards.
The Pinglu Canal construction management team will continue to rely on the digital twin system and the fully autonomous and controllable lock control system simulation platform to strictly control commissioning quality, striving to achieve the goals of zero defects in equipment installation and zero failures in commissioning and operation, ensuring the canal is completed and opened to navigation on schedule.
