Chapter 177 Transportation (I)
Hongsavadi.
The eastern part of Karen State is the border between Hongsawadi and Siam, where there is a boundary river between the two countries - the Dangweng River.
The river is also a tributary of the Salween River.
Previously, because the Dangweng River was a boundary river, the Qingye Group only dredged it to allow the upper limit of its ship traffic to reach 500 to 1,000 tons.
But it’s different now.
Since Siam has become an area controlled by the Homo sapiens Company, the boundary river is naturally in name only.
The river channel, which had already been secretly explored, was now blocked by a large amount of earth and rocks, and the river was temporarily diverted to another location.
After the earth and rock block was built, a large number of excavators and transport vehicles were busy working on the part of the river that was drained.
The Dangweng River Dam is the core of this project.
After Liu Zhifan and Wu Nan cut the ribbon, they were busy with interviews from TV stations in two places until noon, when they had lunch together.
The place where the two of them had their meal was in the construction team's temporary staff town, located on a flattened hilltop. Standing on it, one could overlook the entire construction site.
"Although it is a temporary town, the infrastructure and service facilities are quite complete." Wu Nan said, and picked up another piece of chicken fillet.
Liu Zhifan smiled and said, "The company has plans for large-scale engineering projects. This kind of project requires thousands of employees. There is no problem in building a new town. Anyway, we will need to build a city here in the future."
Since there were no other outsiders in the private room, Wu Nan was more relaxed when speaking. He looked at the river construction site outside the French window:
“Isn’t it too rushed to plan for three years for the project?”
"No rush, we used new technologies, such as coral cement that does not require much maintenance, iron bamboo and steel wire composite reinforcement, and most importantly, crack repair technology."
Wu Nan raised his eyebrows and put down his fork: "Another new technology?"
Su Jincheng, the chief engineer of the project, introduced to Wu Nan: "Well , during the construction process, even if it is not rushed, cracks are a common problem, especially for integrated dams, where cracks are almost inevitable."
"Our coral cement is no exception. Although maintenance can reduce cracks, they still appear. In recent years, we have rushed to build a large number of hydropower stations. Many dams have cracks due to improper construction."
Su Jincheng paused and took a sip of water:
"Therefore, our headquarters has developed a special crack repair technology to address this problem. The core principle of this technology is to use genetically modified fungi, combined with special silicate and calcium solutions, to allow the genetically modified fungi to grow in the cracks, thereby forming a silicon-calcium layer with extremely strong bonding strength."
Wu Nan is very interested in this technology: "Can this technology also repair cracks in old reinforced concrete buildings?"
"Yes, as long as it is crack-type damage, it can be quickly repaired in this way. Its bonding strength is much higher than the original concrete structure. After all, this is a molecular-level bond." Su Jincheng nodded.
Liu Zhifan even smiled and said: "If the unit cost was not 2.7 times that of concrete and there was a risk of leakage, the company would have planned to use this method to build the building."
"It's already pretty good. The combination of coral cement and iron-bamboo-steel wire composite reinforcement allows us to carry out construction quickly. In fact, the three years includes the time for the later installation of equipment . The main building only takes about 18 months." Su Jincheng added.
"Only 18 months? This speed is really too fast. Technology is indeed the primary productive force." Wu Nan sighed.
You should know that the real data of the Dangweng River Dam is quite different from the data they released on TV.
The entire Dangweng River Dam adopts a gravity dam design. The dam body is 1,832 meters long and the dam top is 156 meters high. It is a smaller Three Gorges Dam.
Its maximum water storage height is 132 meters, and its daily water storage height is 100 meters.
This is not the most critical point. The most critical thing is the navigation lock on one side of the dam, which is designed as a double-line 4-level lock. The maximum ship that can pass through is upper limit of 20,000 tons (1,000 standard container ships).
However, the two announced the figures on TV, which showed that the tonnage of the largest ship passing through was only 3,000 tons.
Obviously this was deliberately concealed from the outside world.
The reason for doing this is mainly to reduce external pressure.
Because the upper reaches of the Dangwuong River and the Ping River, the largest tributary of the Chao Phraya River in Siam, are less than 20 kilometers apart, separated only by a low mountain range in the That Nien Thawuong Mountains.
After the river channel is dredged in the future, the two rivers can be directly connected by simply digging through this mountain range.
By then, the voyage from Yangon to Bangkok and Chiang Mai for ships below 20,000 tons will be shortened from the original 3,600 to 4,200 kilometers to 700 to 1,000 kilometers.
This is also the reason why Liu Zhifan specially invited Wu Nan over.
If the navigable capacity of the entire canal is to be increased to the upper limit of 20,000 tons, Siam must also simultaneously transform the Chao Phraya River so that a seamless connection can be achieved.
As to why the Kra Canal was not dug.
The main reason is that there is no need for it now, and there is also huge external pressure.
The existence of the Strait of Malacca itself involves complex interests and strategies.
Once the Kra Canal is dug, it will definitely attract the attention of America, and Sing Tao will even be directly hostile to the Kra Canal.
Therefore, the Kra Canal is not necessary at this stage.
After all, Sapiens now controls Malaysia and at least one-quarter of the sovereignty of Malacca.
Siam is connected to Hongsavadi by land, and can be connected to Luzon and Malaysia by sea, so there is no need to rush the Kra Canal.
On the contrary, the Dangwueng-Chao Phraya Canal is more important because it can promote the integration of Hongsavady and Siam and drive economic development along the route.
After all, this canal connects the northern inland of Siam, making the That Ninh Thaung Mountains, which originally blocked traffic between the two sides, a smooth road.
The construction of the Dang Ong River Dam and dredging of the upstream river channel , as well as the construction of the Chao Phraya River dam in Siam, are all for the final connection of the two rivers.
After Wu Nan learned about this plan, he was both excited and nervous:
"Mr. Liu, there is no problem with the dam and the dredging of the river, but the excavation of the section of the He Nian Tha Weng Mountains can be easily seen by the eyes in the sky."
"Don't worry! They can't see it." Liu Zhifan replied confidently.
Wu Nan's eyes widened. "How can we avoid being discovered? Even if we cover it with camouflage cloth, satellites can detect abnormalities through the reflected wave band."
Liu Zhifan wiped his mouth, pushed the plate aside, and patted Wu Nan on the shoulder: "Let's go to the site together next month. The construction team will go there to check the site tomorrow."
"Mr. Liu really likes to keep people in suspense." Wu Nan was itching to try it.
Liu Zhifan shook his head: "Seeing is believing, and you may be confused by the specific technical principles."
"Okay! Then I'll wait and see."
The group rested in the staff town for one night and returned to their respective posts the next day.
And the other side.
As soon as the sky turned light, the special engineering team, which had already packed up its equipment, boarded a dozen 500-ton small transport ships and headed upstream of the Dangweng River.
Although it is the dry season, the Dangweng River, after being dredged, can still allow 500-ton ships to navigate.
That low mountain range is right in the middle of the upper reaches.
