Photo: ShelterForest along the Jingjiang Dike. (By Ke Hao, Reporter of Hubei Daily)
After more thanfour years of construction, the main body of Jingjiang Dike comprehensiveharnessing project has been completed, and the flood control capabilities inflood season will be greatly enhanced.
On April 2, whendriving along the Jingjiang dike for tens of kilometers, the reporter foundthat the pavement on the dike was smooth and tide, all the ponds in theembankment had been filled and the trees all along had sprouted to display abeautiful scene of vitality.
As the first-classembankment in China, the Jingjiang Dike is 182.35 kilometers long to provideprotection over 18,000 square kilometers of areas, including 11 million mu of cultivated lands and a populationof more than 10 million, therefore it’s also known as the “life dike” of theJianghan Plain.
According to theintroduction of Jingzhou Yangtze River Administration Bureau, the Jingjiangdike had been reinforced twice before 2007. However, due to the early designand low standard, some hidden safety hazards still existed such as poor earthfilling and dike foundation as well as many ponds all along the embankment.
At the end of 2014,the comprehensive harnessing project of Jingjiang dike started with a totalinvestment of 1.8 billion yuan. Up to now, the main body has been basicallycompleted, about 86km of new anti-seepage wall has been built, 121km ofembankment has been grouted and more than 200 ponds had been filled, a fewprojects have entered the stage of finishing nowadays.
Embankmentbeautification is also an important part of the harnessing project. “TheJingjiang dike with ‘one embankment and one road covered with forest on bothbanks’ has become a beautiful landscape.” Zha Yuqing, who has worked on theYangtze River dike for more than 30 years, said that before the harnessingproject, the embankment top was full of pits and rambling houses withinsufficient vegetation. After the harnessing project, the whole dike has beenchanged into a landscape belt as the backyard garden of the residents livingalongside.
The deepestanti-seepage wall is as tall as 20 floors
"Jingjiangsection is the most dangerous part of the Yangtze River.” Due to the bendingriver section and complicated relationship between rivers and lakes, the floodsfrequently occurred along the Jingjiang section in history.
What changes havebeen brought to the Jingjiang dike in the third large-scale reinforcement? “Theconstruction of anti-seepage wall is an important part of this reinforcementproject.” According to Zou Zhanhong, the director of Engineering TechnologyOffice of Jingzhou Yangtze River Administration, on some embankments of theJingjiang dike, the earth filling is complicated with poor anti-seepagecapability. In flood season, the dike will be endangered by the risks of seepage,piping and scattered immersion, therefore it is urgent to implement anti-seepagetreatment.
In thisreinforcement project, the anti-seepage wall of 86 kilometers and 1.44 millionsquare meters has been newly constructed. The maximum depth of anti-seepagewall in Jianli Yaoqinao section is 85 meters as high as over 20 floors with athickness of 1500px, which sets the record of the similar projects in China."The application of anti-seepagewall technology in the reinforcement project has greatly reduced the risks ofpiping and scattered immersion along the Jingjiang dike." Zou Zhanhongintroduced. Taking Jingzhou Muchenyuan section and Jianli Yaoqinao section asthe examples. Before the harnessing engineering, the accidents of piping andpiping group had occurred in 2007 and 2012 respectively and the dike itself wasalso suffered from the danger of scattered immersion.After the completion of the anti-seepagewall in June 2015, the hazards of flooding and piping had been effectivelyreduced in flood seasons from 2016 to 2018.
The filling ofponds is also the focus of this harnessing.Before 2014, there were more than 300ponds of different sizes along the Jingjiang dike, including 19 big ponds. Somewere as deep as 8 meters and only 50 meters away from the foot of the dike.Once the water level rose, the ponds andthe flood would impose a threat on the dike from the front and the rear. Afterthe comprehensive harnessing, the ponds of over 1.5m deep within 200 metersalong the Jingjiang dike have been filled to remove the threat. “Since thecomprehensive harnessing, the flood control capacity, information level andaesthetics of the Jingjiang dike have been greatly improved.” Zou Zhanhong toldthe reporter of Hubei Daily that the flood control capability of Jingjiang dikehad been raised to resist the floods of once in 20 years; when in coordinationwith the Three Gorges Reservoir, the flood control capability had been raisedto resist the floods of once in 100 years; the comprehensive use of the ThreeGorges Reservoir, the flood storage area in Jingjiang area and the sub floodstorage area in Honghu can ensure the safety of the Jingjiang section in floodseason and avoid the devastating disaster due to dike break.
Threereinforcements on Jingjiang dike
The Jingjiang dikewas built from the first year of the Yonghe Emperor to the second year of the XingningEmperor in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. According to the introduction of theJingzhou Yangtze River Administration Bureau, the Jingjiang dike started to becompletely renovated by three large-scale reinforcements since theestablishment of the new China.
The first phase ofreinforcement: From 1974 to 1983, the government invested 118 million yuan onthe infrastructure of bank reinforcement for risks removal.
The second phase ofreinforcement: From 1983 to 2007 with the investment of 852 million yuan on thereinforcement of the embankment, the revetment and the construction of dikemanagement facilities.
The phase of comprehensiveharnessing: From 2014 to 2018 with the investment of 1.8 billion yuan on theconstruction of anti-seepage wall, pond filling and embankment greening, etc.