XiLuoDu Dam project: Telebelt TB110G at the World’s Third Largest Hydropower Station

XiLuoDu Hydropower station is located at the downriver of JinShaJiang, with the state investment of 7.36 billion USD. It is a double-curved arch dam, water holding capacity is 12.67 billion m³. Its maximum dam height is 278 m and the crest length is 700 m. Crest elevation above sea level is 610 m.

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Innovatively in this jobsite Putzmeister’s Telebelt is used to pour earth dry “normal” dam concrete other than the traditionally pumpable concrete. The difference of these two kinds of concrete lies mainly in the proportion of cementitious material to be used. The pumpable concrete demands relative high flowability so as to be able to flow through pipes. Its high fines and water contents generates unacceptable binding heat, later shrinkage and high hydration heat which is unacceptable for thick dam walls.The Telebelt telescopic belt continuously and pulsation free moves any kind of concrete down to dry aggregate with up to 120 mm stones in the mix - and especially this so-called roller compacted, extreme dry concrete used here.

Due to these proven features a first Putzmeister Telebelt TB105 started in China  service at Three Gorges Project in 2000. (site report TB 3479) Until now this machine has operated over 20,000 working hours and is still running properly. This strongly demonstrates the durability and reliability of Putzmeister’s Telebelt system. Therefore, Three Gorges Company purchased 2 new Telebelts version TB110G for the SinoHydro Bureau 7. The machine is easy to operate. As it can telescope, swing, lift, and go down very smoothly, the 2 TB110Gs are very popular on the jobsite. SinoHydro Bureau 7‘s operator praise the machine “It makes the pour be so easy!”. However, the working load for the people on the jobsite is hard, normally the belt machine needs to continuously pour more than 1,000 m³ concrete at one time. Just thinking about these numbers it is not difficult to imagine how hard the jobs for these front line operators would be without the Telebelt!