China begins building $11.4 billion ‘world’s largest’ inland ship locks at Three Gorges Dam

China has officially broken ground on an ambitious 77.2 billion yuan (US$11.4 billion) infrastructure expansion at the Three Gorges Dam to eliminate a critical shipping bottleneck on the Yangtze River. Spanning nearly a decade, the project represents the largest infrastructure undertaking on Asia’s longest waterway since the river was dammed in 1997.

The centrepiece of this massive buildout is a series of mega ship locks, colossal "water staircases" designed to handle much larger vessels and streamline logistics. Included in Beijing’s 15th five-year plan (2026–2030), the expansion aims to transform the Yangtze into a high-capacity shipping conduit, shoring up internal connectivity to sustain national economic growth.

The urgency of the project stems from a massive surge in cargo and passenger traffic that has completely overwhelmed the dam's existing transit facilities, which were built in 2003. According to Ministry of Transport officials, the older ship locks and lifts have become severe chokepoints, as original planners decades ago failed to anticipate the scale of today's booming shipping demand.

Since its construction, the Three Gorges Dam has drastically improved navigation conditions, driving the growth of major industrial clusters along the 6,300-kilometre waterway. Shipping volumes continue to climb rapidly between key economic megalopolises, linking Chongqing in the southwest through Wuhan in central China, all the way to the affluent eastern coastal hubs of Nanjing and Shanghai, where the Yangtze flows into the East China Sea. This new multi-billion-dollar upgrade will ensure the river can efficiently support the heavy industrial and logistical demands of these interconnected economic powerhouses for decades to come.