Chapter 741 Things Have to Be Faced

"I want to go up to the embankment to check the situation." Fan Heng looked at the scaffolding that was in the mist. Said to the entourage.

After hearing Fan Heng's request, both the entourage and the people at the reservoir construction headquarters were a little panicked. The water storage height here must be more than 100 meters high. Fan Heng, who is already in his fifties and Leaders who usually have little experience working outside the country go to Shangdi to check the situation in person, but no one will feel at ease.

"Vice Prime Minister Fan, it's too dangerous here. It's better for us to go up and have a look at the situation." The entourage said one after another.

The leaders of the Kurdistan Region Construction Command also dissuaded, "Vice Prime Minister Fan, although there are some cracks in the embankment, the problem is not serious. We are using filling materials to carry out comprehensive repairs. There is really no need to go up to check."

Fan Heng shook his head and said, "I was entrusted by the central government to investigate this matter. Now that I'm here, how can I feel at ease if I don't go up and have a look?"

As he spoke, he ignored what others said, found a helmet and put it on, then accompanied by several bodyguards, climbed onto the scaffolding under construction, and then climbed to the crack on the embankment.

The retaining water surface of the dam is close to the middle section of the river. The dam has been poured to a height of more than 100 meters, and it is about 80 meters high in the middle of the dam. A total of more than 20 pieces of scaffolding, which the migrant workers call patchwork trenches, were erected from top to bottom, covered with green protective nets, like a "green centipede" array erected to crawl around the middle and lower part of the dam body.

Directly below these "green centipedes", a construction trench hundreds of meters long and tens of meters deep was excavated along the base of the dam. Workers were busy constructing under the deep trench and along the base of the dam.

Fan Heng and others climbed up to several levels of the repair trough and saw cracks on the dam wall from top to bottom. The cracks were wide enough to insert the palm of an adult's hand. After asking the construction workers, they found out that these are cracks that are currently being treated. Because various new materials need to be added to the grout, they used a portable cutting machine along the crack mouth to scrape off several centimeters thick and dozens of layers of waterproof cement layer on the surface next to the crack. centimeters wide, and cut the seams a little further to facilitate construction.

At the top of the "Green Centipede" is a huge middle-level flood discharge hole. A scaffolding platform walkway has been built here. This is in the middle of the dam. You can see the strips of patchwork cut out from the top of the dam along the dam body. seam. Those have already been processed, workers said.

A construction worker told Fan Heng that the reason for the cracks was that there was something wrong with the partition material between each pouring section. It was also possible that there was something wrong with the foundation below, but the specific reason still needs to be determined. Experts figure it out.

The dam has been fully closed since construction began, and the quality of the dam is unknown to the outside world. This time it was revealed that it was first spread on the Internet, but it must be difficult for ordinary people to distinguish the authenticity. It's all just rumors.

A deputy general manager of the Construction Corporation followed closely behind Fan Heng.

He explained, "This is just a shallow crack on the surface and will not affect the safety of the dam. Dam cracks are inevitable in all hydropower projects at home and abroad. Cracks in large volumes of concrete are caused by the pouring of the dam. It is a problem that is difficult to completely avoid. As a high dam with the largest amount of concrete pouring in the world, cracks in the dam are inevitable during continuous high-intensity construction.”

Another expert who came from Beijing in advance also said, "Large-volume concrete pouring is not like ordinary thin-walled structures. The problem of setting temperature is quite complicated. Because it is large and high, the concrete must be hot. The project is in progress In terms of temperature control, although comprehensive measures have been taken to cool low-temperature concrete, after all, the maximum temperature of concrete is relatively high, and the minimum temperature of the dam is somewhat low when there is a change. After the temperature difference is caused, cracks will inevitably occur in large volumes of concrete. Therefore, we put hydropower. Concrete cracks and other repairs during construction are the last process in concrete construction. It is just a process, and it is impossible to complete the dam without any defects. "

Fan Heng nodded. Regarding this issue, he also consulted relevant water conservancy experts before coming, but since the entire project has almost included well-known water conservancy experts across the country, it is obviously difficult to hear any different opinions at this time.

During the feasibility study of the project, the flood control team proposed that the project must achieve the expected flood control goals and the flood control storage capacity must be at least 25 billion cubic meters. The project proposal approved by the National People's Congress has a flood control storage capacity of only 22.1 billion cubic meters, which is already smaller than the flood control group's requirements.

Later, teachers and students from the Department of Water Resources of Tsinghua University recalculated the flood control storage capacity and concluded that the flood control storage capacity of the reservoir was less than 20 billion cubic meters. Therefore, experts also suggested that the flood control limit water level be lowered from 145 meters above sea level to 135 meters above sea level to make up for the loss of flood control storage capacity caused by calculation errors. The threshold of the dam ship lock is raised.

However, flood control benefits are an important function of the dam and are also the main engineering goals of this project. If the flood control benefits cannot be achieved, it is tantamount to admitting that this project is somewhat disappointing.

The threshold of the dam ship lock needs to be raised, and most of the freight will be interrupted here and rely on machinery to climb the dam. During his lifetime, the Prime Minister once said that if the construction of a dam on the Yangtze River disrupted shipping on the Yangtze River, the dam would be blown up. Although it is unknown whether this statement is true or false, there is always this saying. It would be great if this problem can be solved. If it cannot be solved, it will be very confusing. After all, tens of billions have been spent on the dam, and the investment after its completion It is close to 200 billion yuan. If such a large project is not satisfactory, it will indeed be unaccountable.

If we only consider the issue of electricity, then building a few nuclear power plants will be more than adequate. The investment is definitely not that big, and the time, energy, manpower and material resources consumed are definitely not that much.

After all, after the dam was built, many of the original scenery no longer exist, which is very regrettable.

Fan Heng watched carefully all morning on the embankment. At this time, it was extremely hot and the weather was extremely hot. The group of people felt that the heat was unbearable, so they left from the embankment. Before leaving, they still took a lot of field inspection pictures at the scene. As a reference, the repair methods and materials provided by the reservoir construction headquarters were registered one by one, and some samples were taken back for future reference.

After returning to the hotel to stay, the surrounding local government officials rushed over to cooperate with the security personnel who had just arrived to implement security matters. Then several important leaders met with Fan Heng and reported on their work.

Fan Heng was very talkative and kind at this time. When it was time for lunch, he specially asked the hotel to arrange a few banquets to entertain these people. Everyone felt that Vice Premier Fan was very easy to get along with.

While having dinner and resting, Fan Heng felt a little bit heatstroke, so he asked Song Qing to take out the summer medicine tea that Fan Wubing had prepared for him and soak it in water.

"Wu Shi is very well prepared, all year round. He can always prepare all kinds of medicines needed at home." Song Qing said to Fan Heng.

Fan Heng nodded and said, "Wu Bian knew that I was busy at work, so he specially prepared a lot of nourishing medicines and arranged rich recipes. Over the years, relying on his conditioning, my body has never had any major problems. "

"What happened this time is very troublesome." Song Qing couldn't help but mention the crack in the embankment.

When Fan Heng heard this topic, he couldn't help but ponder for a moment, and then said with emotion, "When the National People's Congress passed a resolution to build the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, the news came. The people in the reservoir area rejoiced and set off firecrackers to show their appreciation. Celebrate. Now that several years have passed, the joyful energy of the people in the reservoir area has long flowed eastward with the Yangtze River. Many of them may not be able to tell whether they should be happy or sad now. When the old workers of the Fengjie Cement Factory are wonderful In the first explosion, I saw that the factory building I built was instantly destroyed. When the peasant woman in Qu Yuan's hometown had to cut down the citrus trees that were about to bear fruit, when the immigrants in the ancient town of Dachang waved goodbye to the Wen family compound where they had lived for more than ten generations and went their separate ways. There may be many things they have not expected about the future. Not only these ordinary people, but also the decision-makers, planners, advocates, supporters or those who are unaware of this project also have many things they have not expected.”

When Song Qing heard Fan Heng speak like this, she felt the helplessness in Fan Heng's words.

In the morning, the deputy general manager spoke frankly. In the past few years of construction, the overall direction was good, but there were still some defects and accidents, some of which were quite serious. For example, if the surface of the diversion bottom hole is uneven and the lower one is elevated, it took more than a year to deal with it. Of course, it is only a small amount for the entire project, but it still has an impact on the progress of the project, and the impact on this year is relatively large. Because it is discovered earlier, the treatment is basically more timely. If it is discovered before the flow is intercepted, there will be no time for processing.

When Fan Heng asked if the dam had been damaged and whether it was possible to tear it down and start over, the chief engineer said that it was impossible to completely avoid cracks on the dam surface. The question was whether it would cause harm to the dam. The cracks now discovered have recently been identified by experts and are not hazardous cracks. But if not handled properly, it may develop into harmful cracks. At the same time, he also admitted that in terms of prediction, he did not expect its expansion to be so fast.

Another situation is not optimistic. A few years after the construction started, news came out that the geological disasters in the reservoir area were serious, including more than 3,000 landslides. There are more than a thousand collapses and deformations. According to official media reports, there have been more than 40 major geological disasters in this area over the past decade, and there are still more than 1,500 mountain collapses and landslides.

Among these landslides, nearly a thousand are located below the 135-meter water level where water was stored in the initial stage of the project. According to information from the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission, there are more than 1,300 areas with potential geological hazards in the reservoir area, and more than 100 areas need to be dealt with.

After Fan Heng got this information, the first thing that came to his mind was one question. The decision-makers of the project must not have known about these situations. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to make such a decision.

And it’s strange to say that these landslides, collapses and earthquakes seem to be deliberately trying to make life difficult for people. A landslide occurred in the old county town of Yunyang, Wulong, an earthquake occurred in Xingshan, Zigui, and the Badong New City was built on the old landslide a few days later. After reconstruction in another place, a few days later a huge landslide appeared in the new county town of Yunyang, threatening the safety of tens of thousands of people. A few days later, a collapse occurred in Zigui, and this time it really killed people.

"Although the idea is good, the terrain in the southwest is complex and there are many problems. It is obviously not enough to just think about taking advantage of it. The previous preparations were obviously very sufficient, but now it seems that there are still many problems. It can only be said that as time goes by, With the development of the times, our understanding of the environment has improved again," Fan Heng said with some disappointment.

If he were just watching from the side, perhaps Fan Heng would not have so many emotions, but being there, he felt how difficult it was to do something.

It’s not that many people on this construction site don’t work conscientiously, it’s not that these technicians cut corners and neglect their duties, it’s not that all the funds for the entire building operation have been diverted, but in the current situation It is indeed difficult to build a perfect dam under such conditions.

It is not a problem if some problems occur in the project. Nothing is perfect, but if there are problems, you need to find ways to solve them instead of just covering them up.

This dam can be said to have carried the wishes of the people of the entire Yangtze River provinces for many years. Everyone hopes that they will no longer have to suffer from the Yangtze River floods in the future. However, from Fan Heng’s perspective, it is necessary to announce this at this time. The goal has been achieved, but it is unrealistic.

High-level officials are not very optimistic about this issue. Therefore, more than 6 billion yuan has been allocated this year for the construction and repair of embankments in provinces along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. This is enough to illustrate the problem.

"In any case, our goal has been achieved. Now that we are returning to the capital, no one can say that we have not fulfilled our responsibilities. Even if we say anything in the future, the photos we took and the specimens we brought back will be enough to illustrate the problem. "Song Qing saw that Fan Heng was in a bad mood, so she comforted him.

Fan Heng smiled and then said, "I suddenly remembered what Wu Bian said to me, life is like a cup of tea, it will not be bitter for a lifetime, but it will always be bitter for a while. There is always a gap between ideals and reality. Fortunately, there is still a gap, otherwise, who would still care about ideals? "

Speaking of Fan Wubing, Song Qing couldn't help but smile and said, "He said a lot of things. Be grateful to those who hurt you, because they have tempered your will; be grateful to those who deceived you, because they have improved your will." Be grateful to those who slandered you, because they sharpened your character; Be grateful to those who whipped you, because they inspired your fighting spirit; Be grateful to those who abandoned you, because they taught you to be independent; Be grateful to the person who tripped you, because he strengthened your legs; be grateful to the person who scolded you, because he reminded you of your shortcomings.”

When Fan Heng talked about his son, he felt much better, and then said to Song Qing, "Haha, the matter is over, I will go back home tomorrow. The Politburo will definitely still have to hold a meeting to discuss my sneaking away. "