The Three Gorges Dam site is 27 miles upstream from YichangCity proper, at SandoupingTown, 38km upstream from the Gezhouba Dam Lock, inside the third of the Three Gorges. It is planned to be by far the largest hydroelectric project in the world. The Project calls for the construction of a concrete dam, a hydroelectric power plant and a series of locks just below the scenic Three Gorges region. The project is designed to be built in three phases and is scheduled for completion in year 2009. Upon arrival at Sandouping, passengers will take a bus across the ThreeGorgesBridge, which leads toward the top of the hill for a birds-eye view of the construction from the observation deck. Visitors will observe the five-step ship lock, the diversion canal, the dam in construction, and the power station. English speaking professional guides will be on hand to provide detailed information on the history of the dam and facts on its construction. In addition, an exhibition room displays a model of the dam, and offers passengers another opportunity to ask questions and learn about the benefits of this amazing project. One of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in the world, the Three Gorges Project will forever change the face of the Yangtze River as we know it today. Possessing comprehensive utilization benefits mainly for flood control, power generation and navigation improvement. It will be a vital important and backbone project in harnessing and developing of the Yangtze River. Measures have been taken to preserve and move the historical and cultural relics found along its banks; however many scenic spots will be adversely affected. The most dramatic section of the river, what we refer to as "the heart of the Yangtze"-the area from the Three Gorges all the way upstream to Chongqing-will eventually be drowned by the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, an integral part of the Three Gorges Project.

This dam was designed as an embankment, built of loose sands, situated across the Parana River, 30 kilometers northwest of the imaginary line between the cities of Santa Fe and Parana. The length of the dam is 6,704 meters, and its maximum height of 34.50 meters, with a volume of 27.4 million of cubic meters. The width in the top should be of 22 meters to install a highway of four lanes. The width will be increased to 27 meters where the concrete power plant building will be placed, to install the tracks of a railway. Between the navigation lock and the left bank the width to be of 37 meters The maximum height of the lake, over the River Plate zero to be + 28 meters, with a maximum fall of water of 18.30 meters and an annual average fall of 15.38 meters. The installed capacity in the dam to be of 3,000 MW, that with an average generation of 18,578 GWh, running 6,190 hours.

To protect the low lands in the north of the Province of Santa Fe, an embankment parallel to the west bank will be built, with an average height of 15 meters and a length of 236 kilometers. This will permit to protect the villages of Alejandra, San Javier, Helvecia and the historic ruins of Cayasta. Also, it should be possible to reclaim 500,000 hectares of good agricultural lands, partly by drainage and partly by irrigation. On the top of the embankment a road shall be built for tourist recreation. This dam creates a long lake of 300 kilometers long and an average width of 30 kilometers with and area of 900,000 hectares, useful as a water reservoir, aquaculture, commercial and sport fishing, aquatic sports and tourism.

At present time, the Chapeton dam project is finished and its engineering detail design and bid documents are available, waiting for the economic opportunity to be built. On March 1996 an American consortium of contractors made an offer to built the Chapeton dam with all its installations, by means of a concession for the electric energy supply, investing 5,000 million dollars, and finishing the works in a term of 5 years. Because, bureaucratic, political, and lack of decision by the Argentina Government, the proposal was lost.

The house of the plant will be built with hydraulic reinforced concrete, and a volume of 2.47 million cubic meters should be necessary. It will be placed between the navigation lock and the principal weir. In addition to housing the turbines, the generators and their mechanisms, this concrete structure will serve as a frontal dike, throughout its length of 969 meters, and a support structure for the highway and the railway crossing on its top, to join the provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Rios. At each side of the power house, adequate fish passes should be placed, to preserve the reproduction of local species in the lake. 48 horizontal Kaplan turbines, capsular type should be install in the dam. These turbines also can be used as bottom discharge of the lake. The characteristics of the power plant are:

Turbines total power: 86,224 HP
Speed rotation: 88.24 rpm
Water wheel diameter: 7.50 meters
Flow through each turbine: 544 m3/second
Generators total power: 62,500 KW
Voltage generated: 10.5 kV
Number of transformers: 12

Because of technical and economic reasons it was decided to design the dam with a main and a superficial weir. The main weir was located between the house of the plant and the navigation lock with a volume of concrete of 536,600 cubic meter. The maximum water discharge of this weir should be of 19,464 cubic meters per second, with a total flow length of 240 meters. The control of the flow of the water to be made by 12 segment floodgates of 12.6 meters of height and 20 meters of width. The superficial weir was designed to evacuate water when the flow should be more than 45,000 cubic meters per second and was placed at a level of + 21.80 meters. It will allow floater vegetation pass, especially during the floods.

It has a flood length of 686.40 meters and a discharge flow of 24,038 cubic meters per second. 48 floodgates with a height of 8 meters and a width of 14.30 meter will control the flow of the water. So, the combined total capacity of discharge of the weirs of Chapeton dam to be of about 70,000 cubic meters per second

This project has been developed as a preliminary design to define its principal characteristics.

The geometric dimensions and form of the projected embankment must adopt a curve design in order to give better protection to the towns of Reconquista in the Province of Santa Fe and the town of Goya in the Province of Corrientes. The level of the lake formed will be + 43 meters above the zero of the River Plate.

The fall of water, the weirs, the navigation locks, and the fish passes will have the same dimensions that the fish passes of the Chapeton dam. Only the installed capacity will be different, because it shall be of 3,300 MW.

Final studies of this dam have been interrupted, so it is not possible to estimate when they could be finished.

One of the largest mine tailings piles in the world: 7.4 billion cubic feet, the New Cornelia Tailings is often cited as the largest dam structure in the country, by volume (the tailings, waste mateial from the mining process, were heaped into a  pile that created a holding structure for future tailings, some of which were deposited in a pumped slurry, thus the tailings pile is an "impoundment" or dam). The mine that produced the tailings, the 1.5 mile wide open pit New Cornelia Mine, is owned by Phelps Dodge, and is presently in limbo (shut down in 1983). A project to mine the tailings has been proposed.

In April 1948, India diverted the flow of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers, an act, which threatened irrigated cultivation in Pakistan. That same year, in an effort to mitigate the consequences of possible interference by India with thesupplies of the canals feeding from those rivers, Pakistan embarked on aprogram of link canal construction to enable the transfer of water betweenrivers.Until 1967, the entire irrigation system of Pakistan was fully dependent onunregulated flows of the Indus and its major tributaries.

The agricultural yield was very low for a number of reasons, the most important being a lack of water during critical growing periods. This problem stemmed from the seasonalvariations in the river flow and the absence of storage reservoirs to conserve the vast amounts of surplus water during periods of high river discharge.

Tarbela Dam was the second such development, which was constructed toreduce the shortcomings and strengthen the irrigation system. Approved by the World Bank in 1965, its construction started in 1968. The expected time ofcompletion of the dam was April 1975, but it was built ahead of schedule and the test filling of the reservoir stated in July 1974. A serious problem occurred in all four tunnels at water levels of 1462 and the reservoir had to be depleted.

After rectification, the dam was completed in 1977 but normal operation of the reservoir could not start before the kharif of 1978.Please Insert Sketch in the file called "Location Map" sent separately in MS Word format. It is a scanned figure.

The Tarbela Dam is the largest earth and rockfill dam of the world. It wasconstructed as part of the Indus Basin Settlement Plan. The primary function of the Tarbela project was to regulate the Indus River flows for the benefit ofirrigation. A secondary function is the generation of electric power. Incidental benefits include limited flood control of the Indus River, a substantial contribution to tourism, commercial fishing possibilities and added employment opportunities during and after construction.

The reservoir was completed in 1977 with units 1 - 4 providing 700 MW ofpower. Units 5 - 8 of 700 MW were added in 1982. Units 9-10 of 350 MW were completed in 1985 and finally units 11 - 14 of 1,728 MW were completed in1992-93, making the total power generation capacity of Tarbela Dam 3,478MW.3.0 The principal elements include:An earth and rockfill embankment across the entire width of the main Indus river valley and the attributed reservoir.

The main embankment dam is 9,000 feet long. It involved 138 million yards3of fill, which makes it the largest dam in the world.On Left Bank:Two auxiliary earth and rockfill embankments to close saddles at the upstream end of a side valley.Two spillways discharging into the side valley.A tunnel through the left abutment to provide controlled releases for irrigation downstream.On the Right Bank:A group for tunnels through the right abutment to provide for river diversion (during last phase of construction), regulated power and irrigation releases.A small diameter tunnel for irrigation to the Gandaf plateau.A powerhouse and a switchyard.

The US Army Corps of Engineers built Fort Peck Dam for flood control, irrigation, navigation and domestic water supply. Hydroelectric power generation and recreation were authorized as uses of Fort Peck Lake after the dam was completed.

Fort Peck Dam was constructed by hydraulic methods and is still the largest hydraulic earth filled dam in the world. Missouri River bottom sands, silts and clays were dredged by electrically operated dredge boats which were constricted at the Fort Peck boat yard during 1934. The dredge material was then pumped through 28 inch pipelines th the dam site. The majority of the dredge material was taken from the Missouri River which is covered by Fort Peck Lake today.

During the construction years, 1933-1940, the population in the Fort Peck area was over 50,000. Eighteen construction boom towns sprang up within a few miles of the dam site. The November 1936 issue of Life Magazine featured Fort Peck Dam and one of these boom towns.

The Missouri River was diverted through the four flood control tunnels on June 24, 1937, but Fort Peck Dam was not completed until 1940. A lake 130 miles long, 16 miles wide at its widest and 220 feet deep at the deepest spot was formed by the dam.

Two hydroelectric power houses are located below Fort Peck Dam. A museum, featuring fossils and pioneer artifacts is located in one of the powerhouses.

All of the lands around Fort Peck Lake are rich in fossils. In order to collect fossils, you must possess a Antiquities Permit. Any fossils that you find must be used for educational or scientific purposes. To obtain information of permits, contact the Fort Peck Lake Office at 406-526-3411.

A nature trail is located between the Downstream Campground and the powerhouses. This self guided trail is about 1 mile long and meanders through a fresh water marsh.

Bison, elk, and deer may be seen in the Wildlife Exhibition Pasture near the town of Fort Peck.

The historic Fort Peck Theater features plays during the summer. You may obtain this season's schedule by writing to:
Fort Peck Fine Arts Council Glasgow, MT 59230

Eleven recreation areas are located around Fort Peck Lake. Many of these are primitive sites with vault toilets, campfire grills and picnic tables. Some of these sites also have shed shelters and boat ramps.

Boat ramps are located at the following areas around Fort Peck Lake:

Two fee area campgrounds are located within a few miles of Fort Peck Dam. The Downstream Campground and the West Tent and Trailer Campground require a $6.00 per night minimum fee. A site with an electrical hookup is $8.00 per night. These campgrounds have electrical hookups, picnic tables, camp fire grills, water spigots, modern restrooms with showers and asphalt camping pads. A sewage dump station is located between these two campgrounds near the town of Fort Peck.

Twenty-one sites in the Downstream Campground are available for reservation on a first payment/first priority basis. A $3.00 reservation fee for each site reserved is required when making the reservation. Reservations will be accepted after March 1 of each year by contacting:

A unique area near Fort Peck Lake is the Pines Recreation Area. The prairies quickly change to a forest of Ponderosa Pine. This area is located 30 miles from Fort Peck Dam on the North side of the lake. These Ponderosa Pines were the first evergreen trees seen by the Lewis and Clark Expedition as they traveled up the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean between 1803 and 1805.

Fishing in Fort Peck Lake and the Missouri River below Fort Peck Dam is excellent at certain times of the year. The best fishing for lake trout is after ice-out in the spring until June and again in the fall from October until freeze-up. Walleye and sauger fishing can be good during the summer in the colder, deeper waters. The most abundant game fish caught in the lake are walleye, sauger, lake trout, northern pike, and yellow perch. Several other warm and cold water species are caught at irregular intervals.