Once upon a time, goods from the southwest had to travel thousands of miles and cross mountains to sea. Nowadays, on the backbone of the land of Bagui, a man-made water highway has begun to take shape. As the empty test ship honked its horn and set sail, the Pinglu Canal underwent the ultimate test before the entire route was navigable. The southwestern region is only one last wave away from embracing the sea.

Full line testing

On the morning of August 12, 2026, a 5000 ton empty test ship successfully sailed out of the Xinfu Water Comprehensive Service Area of the Pinglu Canal, marking the official start of the full line ship test of the Pinglu Canal. This is the first comprehensive test of the entire channel and all ship types before the navigation of the canal, and it is also a key final exam before the full line navigation. At present, the overall construction progress of the Pinglu Canal project has exceeded 98%, and it is planned to officially open for navigation in September 2026.

In this experiment, four representative ships were coordinated and deployed, covering mainstream navigable ship types with heavy and empty loads of 1000 tons, 3000 tons, and 5000 tons. The test voyage runs through the entire waterway of the Shaping River section, watershed section, Qinjiang main stream section, Qinzhou urban area section, and estuary section, and is fully adapted to daily navigation scenarios.

Global verification

This experiment will be carried out in stages to verify the navigation under conventional and unfavorable conditions, and simultaneously complete the efficiency testing of 206 navigation marks along the entire line, comprehensively verifying the adaptability performance of waterways, locks, anchorages, service areas, and various navigation aids. The experimental subjects cover practical scenarios such as double line lock passage, curved ship maneuvering, same direction overtaking, ship turning, tidal berthing and departure, and night navigation.

At the same time, the project team conducted pre tests on six high-risk scenarios, including hub discharge, tributary confluence, and combined strong winds and tides, to comprehensively investigate navigation hazards under extreme working conditions and fill in the gaps in navigation safety.

Technology guarantee

To ensure the precise and safe conduct of the experiment, the test vessel is equipped with intelligent devices such as Beidou positioning, unmanned aerial vehicle flow field monitoring, tension sensing, and working condition collection, which collect various navigation data in real time and accurately judge the operation status of the waterway. Establish a multi departmental linkage mechanism for maritime, construction, and emergency response in the local area, implement zoning and time-sharing traffic control, equip emergency support forces, conduct pre verification of ship and crew qualifications, and build a strong defense line for testing safety. Keywords: Pinglu Canal, navigation preparation, western land sea new channel, river sea intermodal transportation, waterway safety

After the experiment is completed, the team will issue a special test report, sort out the navigation optimization plan, formulate standardized route navigation laws and control regulations, and provide core technical support for the normal and safe operation of the canal. As the backbone project of the Western Land Sea New Corridor and the first national level river to sea canal in New China, the Pinglu Canal has a total length of 134.2 kilometers and can accommodate 5000 ton ships. After navigation, it will completely open up the southwest sea passage and deepen economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN.Editor/Gong Ziwei