Recent Improvement of Gao Qiao New Channel on Huangpu River

The Gao Qiao new channel is located at a crossing between two reversed curves of the Huangpu River. In the early 1950s, more than 400,000 m³ of sediment had to be dredged every year to maintain navigation. Despite recurrent dredging, the required navigable depth was difficult to maintain due to heavy siltation. Starting in 1955, studies were undertaken for improving the situation. Unfortunately, traditional rectification work could not be effectively applied to that section of the river that actually had become part of the port area. Later, using experience gained from similar sections of the river where positive changes had taken place as a result of local normalization of shorelines, the channel was greatly improved with little investment. The right bank of the channel has been realigned by using the empirical relation between channel width and depth. Construction of a new bund of embankment has constricted the excess width of the straight portion of the crossover. The results were quite satisfactory. No dredging operations have been required to maintain a navigable depth in recent years.