Anhui's first reuse and expansion project, the Chaohu Ship Lock, has been completed and opened for navigation.

Recently, Anhui's first ship lock project using the "reuse and capacity expansion" model for renovation—the expansion and renovation project of the Chaohu Ship Lock in the Heyu Line Waterway—has been completed and opened for navigation. It significantly boosts the transport capacity of key nodes on the Jianghuai mainline channel. The Chaohu Ship Lock has fully restored dual-lane operation, with an annual one-way freight throughput capacity of up to 60 million tons. The navigable vessel grade for the Chaohu Ship Lock's primary line has been upgraded to 2,000 tons, with an annual one-way freight throughput capacity soaring to 26 million tons.

In recent years, as the Jianghuai mainline channel has been fully connected, the annual freight volume passing through the Chaohu Ship Lock has exceeded 100 million tons for two consecutive years, with over 50,000 vessels passing annually. Ships above 2,000 tons account for as much as 50%, highlighting a significant trend toward larger vessels. The original primary lock has been in service for over 60 years, with issues such as aging main structures, high failure rates of gates and operating components, and insufficient navigation capacity becoming increasingly prominent. The situation during peak freight periods poses severe challenges for the lock.

To fully harness the shipping benefits of the Heyu Line Waterway, Anhui Port Investment Group promptly initiated the Chaohu Ship Lock expansion and renovation project. Using the "reuse and capacity expansion" method, the primary ship lock underwent on-site renovation. While preserving parts of the main structure, new constructions and holistic repairs were carried out to reinforce and expand the dimensions of the lock chamber. Anhui's first "vertically lifting cross-lock highway bridge project" was implemented in tandem, where lifting equipment raised the lock-crossing beam structure by 2 meters, meeting the air-draft requirements for 2,000-ton vessels during special water levels.

Due to project construction needs, approximately 2,850 square meters of the Chaohu water area had to be occupied for new structures in the upstream guiding channel region. To balance construction and ecological protection, the project team utilized the abandoned land at Guishan Wharf, implementing excavation and lake restoration, as well as wetland reconstruction as an equivalent replacement plan. This precisely compensated for the occupied Chaohu water area while considering ecological protection zone development, scenic area landscape restoration, and planning requirements, making it the first water area compensation project in Anhui Province.