Baihetan Dam plant in the world, after the Three Gorges Dam. When finished, it will be the third largest dam in China and the fourth in the world, in terms of dam volume. Construction on the dam began in 2008 and is expected to be complete in 2021. Baihetan Dam The Baihetan Dam () is a large hydroelectric dam under construction on the Jinsha River, a tributary of the Yangtze River in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, in the southwest of China. The dam is a 277 m tall double-curvature arch dam with a crest elevation of 827 m. Its width will be
Three Gorges Dam become safer, since the gorges are notoriously dangerous to navigate. Ships with much deeper draft will be able to navigate upstream from Shanghai all the way to Chongqing. It is expected that shipping to Chongqing will increase fivefold. There are two series of ship locks installed near the dam (). Each of them is made up of five stages, with transit time at around four hours. Maximum vessel size is 10,000 tons. The locks are 280 m long, 35 m wide, and 5 m deep (918 × 114 × 16.4 ft). That is 30 m longer than those on the