Chapter 763: Chapter 518: Main Structure Completion
At 2 p.m., the Changlong Shipyard construction site was decked out with colorful flags, and the sound of gongs and drums filled the air!
At the founding conference of the Linghai Economic and Technological Developnt Zone last year, Secretary Ye requested that officials and enterprise leaders race against ti, learning from the "Shenzhen speed" and "Pudong speed."
After a year of intense construction, the main project of Changlong Shipyard was completed one and a half months ahead of schedule.
Not only Secretary Ye and Mayor Qian from Linghai City ca to attend the completion ceremony, but also Deputy Mayor Qin of Binjiang City, who oversees industrial affairs, was present.
Leaders from the Port Supervision Bureau, Binjiang City Planning Committee, Binjiang Customs, Binjiang Border Control Station, Health Inspection, Comrcial Inspection, and other departnts were also invited to the ceremony.
As a developnt zone official responsible for coordinating nurous river law enforcent units and overseeing the Changlong Shipyard project, Han Yu could neither slack off nor escape the busyness, and had to help entertain leaders from various river units, as busy and frazzled as the vice director of the Managent Committee, Tang Wentai.
Boss Wang from Changyu Shipbuilding Factory, Boss Wu from Linghai Shipbuilding Factory, and Old Ding, the deputy general manager of Changlong Shipyard (Dock) Co., Ltd., were the most excited. Despite the chilly weather, they were dressed in suits and leather shoes, with large red flowers pinned on their chests like bridegrooms, eagerly introducing the construction of the shipyard to the leaders.
The chief engineer from the Marine Engineering Bureau responsible for the shipyard’s design and construction was being interviewed by dia outlets including Binjiang TV Station and Linghai TV Station.
The elderly engineer, with gray hair, was not at all stage-shy in front of the caras. He spoke animatedly, "This shipyard is a drainage pressure reduction type built directly on a clay foundation. It’s the first of its kind in Jiangnan Province, where the stability against sliding of the dock wall itself is not considered, and is supported by large-scale retaining walls, capable of servicing vessels up to 100,000 tons.
The effective length of the dock is 300 ters, with a width of 82 ters and a depth of 14.3 ters, allowing it to accommodate ships over 100,000 tons or the assembly of large ship sections. If resources inside the dock are strained, a segregation wall can be constructed to use it as two or even three docks.
The water content of this shipyard is nearing the limit of flow, and it has a large void ratio. Building a shipyard directly on a clay foundation like this is a first in China. Thanks to a series of asures we’ve taken in structural design and construction, we’ve made the dock structure lighter and more economical.
Less concrete has been used, saving a lot of steel, while also ensuring the quality of the dock, shortening the construction period, and providing valuable experience for future shipyard and ship lock designs in our country..."
After interviewing the chief engineer of the Marine Engineering Bureau, the reporters turned to interview the person in charge of the design and construction unit of the dock gate.
"This floating box-type dock gate has an innovative structure, serving dual functions as a water barrier and pump house. The top of the dock gate also serves as a pedestrian bridge. It is similar to the port gate in hydraulic structures, but also has its differences. It has good water-stopping properties, it’s easy to operate and maintain, and has certain value for promotion..."
Guo Weitao has been transferred to the Water Police Fifth Company as the deputy instructor for two and a half months, and he had visited the shipyard construction site more than once. Looking at the leaders touring around the dock chamber, and then at the person in charge of the design and construction unit of the dock gate who was being interviewed, he felt that everything was so unreal.
The so-called shipyard is just a huge, deep, rectangular "pit."
Only a few dozen mooring piles could be seen on the east, west, and north shores of the shipyard. There were none of the tall gantry cranes found at large ship factories or the crane-style lifting machines at the Binjiang Port freight terminal, and even the number of buildings was scant, making the surrounding area desolate and barren.
As for the few buildings in the northwest corner, they were public restrooms hastily constructed for the main project completion ceremony, otherwise, the leaders attending the ceremony would have nowhere to relieve themselves.
The so-called dock gate is not actually a gate but a huge steel floating box, or rather a ship that can be sunk by filling it with water!
This floating box-type dock gate has three decks, with the lower deck housing fixed ballast tanks and the upper deck covering the pump motor chambers, with water tanks on the side. On the middle deck are the overflow tanks, with two ladder positions on either side of the overflow tanks, also flanked by overflow tanks, and the topmost layer is a pedestrian pathway.
When the dock needs to be drained, a tugboat brings over this ten-thousand-ton dock gate, which is subrged with water to this side facing the Yangtze River, snugly abutting the shipyard’s "doorfras" and the "threshold" beneath the dock.
Rubber pads are installed on both the dock gate and the dock’s "doorfras," ensuring a watertight seal when pressed tightly together.
Once it is subrged to the designated position and secured, several high-power pumps inside the floating box-type dock gate are activated to drain the water from the dock back into the river until the dock chamber is emptied.
If a ship being repaired in the dock needs to exit, several water inflow valves on either side of the shipyard "doorfras" are opened, allowing river water to flow into the dock.
Once the water level and pressure inside the shipyard balance with those outside, the pumps inside the floating box-type dock gate start to drain the ballast water.
As the water level rises, the floating box-type dock gate is lifted, and a tugboat pulls it away, allowing ships built or overhauled in the dock to enter the Yangtze River with the tugboat’s help.
In sum, this costly floating box-type dock gate has all the inherent characteristics of a ship. It is a peculiarly looking ten-thousand-ton vessel.
Boss Wang and Boss Wu had more than once ridiculed that had they known it was so simple, they could have built it themselves and saved at least a million yuan.
However, they only grumbled behind the scenes, as they had never built or even seen a floating box-type dock gate before, and did not dare to treat such a large investnt and directly safety-related project as a joke.
While Guo Weitao was quietly pondering what kind of shipyard this was—it didn’t even look like a shipyard—Secretary Ye announced the flooding of the dock amid enthusiastic applause, with Deputy Mayor Qin and Director Tang of the Port Supervision Bureau modestly stepping aside.
As the six enormous culverts on either side of the shipyard "threshold" began to pour river water into the dock chamber, the flow visibly started small, then grew larger and faster.
By the ti Deputy Mayor Qin, Secretary Ye, and other leaders, accompanied by Deputy Mayor Shen, Boss Wang, Boss Wu, and Director Yu, walked down from the riverbank where the ceremony was held to the front of the floating box-type dock gate, the water inside the dock was already forty centiters deep according to the asuring stick.
Director Yu said it would take three and a half hours to fill the dock with water.
In the biting cold wind by the river, the leaders naturally wouldn’t wait here for such a long ti. After inspecting the floating box-type dock gate, they left one after another.
The three engineers from Cosco didn’t leave. They stayed with Director Yu, Director Tang, Boss Wang, Boss Wu and the person in charge of the construction unit to watch the water filling process.
At this ti, the fully rotational tugboat, which had been expensively hired from the Port Authority, arrived.
Under the command of Han Xiangning, the Port Director of Linghai Port responsible for ensuring the water filling test, the tugboat anchored about one kiloter away from the dock gate.
With the leaders gone, Guo Weitao, who was in charge of security, was no longer as cautious as before, and went to ask, "Director Yu, it’s cold outside. How about we invite the engineers, Boss Wang, and Boss Wu onto Dock 001? There is air conditioning on Dock 001."
"Let’s just stay here, we can’t board the ship now, and we can’t leave this place unattended."
"Can’t leave it unattended?"
Han Yu peeked at the dock gate and whispered, "This is a water filling test; anything could happen. Safety is more important than anything else; I don’t feel at ease if we don’t keep an eye on it."
An old engineer from the Marine Engineering Bureau explained with a smile, "The dock faces the river and is 82 ters wide, but the floating box-type dock gate is only 66 ters long. Both ends of the dock gate, together with the dock walls, span more than ten ters in length, and the water filling passages are all inside the dock walls. Although we are confident in our design and construction, as Director Xiao Han ntioned, safety must be considered during the water filling test."
Guo Weitao realized the concern and dared not make a sound anymore.
His imdiate superior placed a great emphasis on safety. For instance, a few days ago, when the dam outside the floating box-type dock gate was dismantled, he worried that the dock gate and the more than ten ters of dock walls on both ends would not hold up. He developed several ergency response plans similar to flood control, and guarded the site for a day and a night, barely closing his eyes.
He took even greater care regarding fire safety.
Without participating in training and listening to his lectures, one would not realize how dangerous it is to fight fires on water.
In the past decade, nearly all significant mariti fire accidents had resulted in the sacrifice of firefighters.
Moreover, firefighting on water is completely different from firefighting on land. It’s not just about opening high-pressure water guns and spraying water wherever there’s a fire.
For instance, if a fire breaks out on oil tankers or vessels transporting chemicals, water cannot be used to extinguish the fire.
And for sothing like an engine room on fire, one can’t just charge in with a water gun. If an explosion occurs, nobody will survive.
Apart from the potential explosions, the fire extinguishing systems on large ships can also be a death trap for firefighters because the ships are equipped with carbon dioxide fire extinguishing systems. If you are not aware, accidentally touching a valve or if the carbon dioxide canisters in the cabin leak due to the fire, any firefighter without an oxygen mask or with a poor quality mask can suffocate from lack of oxygen and die.
Director Yu once talked about a highly controversial case.
A nearshore passenger ship of the Marine Bureau caught fire in its engine room while docking. The crew managed to evacuate the passengers ashore, and those who couldn’t get off the ship jumped into the river from the bow to survive.
The port’s enterprise fire brigade fully deployed, and the land-based fire departnt also sent hundreds of firefighters and dozens of fire engines. They tried to extinguish the fire with carbon dioxide, but due to poor sealing of the engine room doors, the fire didn’t go out, so they resorted to using all the water guns and cannons to spray water into the engine room.
During the firefighting, two firefighters perished, and many were injured.
Eventually, the passenger ship capsized and sank into the river. Later, it was salvaged using the largest salvage vessel in the country.
The fire happened in 1994, but even to this day, many crew mbers of the Marine Bureau still believe that the ship wouldn’t have sunk if the land-based firefighters hadn’t intervened.
In other words, if soone knowledgeable in mariti firefighting had been in command, the fire could definitely have been extinguished, and the passenger ship wouldn’t have sunk. However, the land-based firefighters didn’t understand this and simply sprayed water to put out the fire, which led to the ship becoming unbalanced due to excessive water and capsizing.
There’s a world of difference between professions; mariti firefighting is highly specialized.
Therefore, at the subsequent symposium after the establishnt of the Water Fire Fighting Association, leaders from various enterprises and institutions along the river, as well as so heads of enterprise firefighting teams, clearly stated that amateurs should not command professionals in case of mariti fire!
Regardless of whether it was the leaders of the Changhang Bureau or the Water Police Station, or even Director Chen from the City Bureau who ca in person, they couldn’t give orders to the firefighters.
A list of commanders for mariti fire response was drafted at the eting. Director Yu was the first na on the list of commanders, followed by others including Boss Fang Guoya, the head of Binjiang Port Enterprise Fire Brigade, Acting Director Chen Zikun of Changhang Branch Bai Long Port Police Station, squad leader Ma Jintao of Water Police Fifth Company, among others.
It is worth ntioning that the port supervision barge soon reverted back to a police barge, or more precisely, the "First Post of the Yangtze River"!
The Water Police Station and Linghai Police Bureau arranged for a special team to redecorate it. The inscription from provincial leaders hung in the command and dispatch room, and a small eting room on the second floor almost turned into an honor room, filled with photos and descriptions of tasks carried out by the Binjiang Water Police since 1988.
At a similar age of about twenty, his imdiate superior had achieved so much. His expertise in law enforcent and rescue on water, especially in mariti firefighting, made Guo Weitao genuinely respect him from the bottom of his heart.
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