Breakthrough progress has been made in the construction of the Pinglu Canal, a key backbone project of the Western Land Sea New Corridor. As the core control projects of the canal, the Ma Dao Hub and Qi Shi Hub will start water filling operations on June 3, 2026, marking the official opening of the entire Pinglu Canal and entering a critical stage of water commissioning.

Achieved multiple hardcore records

The Pinglu Canal has a total length of 134.2 kilometers, starting from the mouth of Pingtang River in Hengzhou City, Nanning, connecting the Qinjiang River directly to the Beibu Gulf sea area, and opening up a direct channel between the main stream of the Xijiang River and the Beibu Gulf, greatly facilitating river sea navigation in southwestern China. The water level drop at the beginning and end of the entire canal reaches 65 meters. In order to ensure smooth passage of ships, the project has built three major cascade hubs, namely Ma Dao, Qi Shi, and Qing Nian, to create a water elevator system suitable for the passage of large ships and achieve smooth lifting and navigation of ships.

Among them, the Ma Dao Hub set two world-class records and is the provincial ship lock with the largest water level difference in the world, with a maximum water level difference of 29.6 meters between upstream and downstream; It is also the world's largest inland waterway lock, with a chamber length of 300 meters and a width of 34 meters. It can accommodate 12 5000 ton ships at the same time, and its navigation volume is far ahead of similar projects worldwide. The Ma Dao and Qi Shi hubs are also equipped with the world's fastest opening and closing ship lock valves, with a single valve weighing 70 tons. It only takes 1 minute to open the door and 30 seconds to close the door, and the navigation efficiency ranks first in the world.

This project has two national firsts and is the highest navigable canal in China, capable of accommodating large vessels of 5000 tons on a regular basis; At the same time, it is the largest transportation project in China with a total excavation volume of approximately 315 million cubic meters of earthwork, which is about three times the size of the Three Gorges Project. In addition, the project has achieved a world first technological breakthrough. The Ma Dao and Qi Shi hubs adopt a three-level provincial water tank stacking layout mode, which stabilizes the water body through more than a thousand reinforced concrete columns, taking into account multiple advantages of water conservation, land conservation, and safety.

Reshaping the Regional Logistics Landscape

The total investment of Pinglu Canal is 72.72 billion yuan, which is a core key project in the construction of a strong transportation country and a benchmark project in the first stage of the 15th Five Year Plan. It is expected to achieve full line navigation by September 2026. After the opening of the canal, the sea routes in Guangxi and Southwest China have been shortened by more than 560 kilometers, significantly reducing logistics time and transportation costs, and thoroughly revitalizing the Southwest River Sea intermodal transportation system.

As the first carrier port at the starting point of the canal, Nanning Port has ushered in a new development opportunity. The construction of the railway dedicated line project in the Six Scenic Area of Nanning Port is accelerating. This is the first railway dedicated line to enter Nanning Port, effectively filling the gap in water rail intermodal transportation and connecting the last mile of logistics transportation. At the same time, the development plan of Nanning Port is progressing in an orderly manner, and the port level continues to improve, laying a solid foundation for the development of cross-border logistics.

Activate the Canal Economic Belt

Relying on the advantage of the Pinglu Canal, the investment in industries along the route continues to rise, and supporting industrial projects are accelerating their landing. At the end of June 2026, the new energy ship intelligent manufacturing base around Nanning Port will officially start construction. After the project is completed, an integrated ship construction production line will be formed, with an annual output of 70 green new energy ships that are suitable for canal navigation standards. The annual production capacity can reach 350000 total deadweight tons, filling the gap in the regional green shipping industry. At present, the construction of major projects in the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt is accelerating comprehensively, and key projects such as the Huangtong Baise Railway and the Qinzhou Port Dalanping Automated Container Berth are steadily advancing. Along the route, diversified industries such as modern green chemicals, high-end steel materials, non-ferrous metal processing, high-end equipment manufacturing, and new generation information technology have gathered, forming a modern industrial cluster along the coast and the Yangtze River. Keywords:Engineering Construction,Construction News,Engineering Information

The Pinglu Canal, with a series of industry-leading infrastructure achievements, has opened up a river sea linkage development channel, continuously improved the layout of the western land sea new channel, relied on high-quality navigation capacity and industrial carriers, continuously released economic radiation efficiency, and written a new chapter in the high-quality development of China's infrastructure.Editor/Gong Ziwei