Recently, the concrete arch of the last silo of the cushion arch slab of the Baihetan Hydropower Project was completed. This indicates that after 22 months of intense construction, the world’s largest anti-arch water cushion pond was successfully completed, and the Baihetan Hydropower Station project has basically been equipped with foundation pit water intake conditions.
 Water cushion pond is an important flood discharge and energy dissipation facility of the dam project. The water cushion pond of Baihetan Hydropower Station adopts the design of double trapezoidal cross section with reverse arch bottom plate, with a length of 360 meters and a width of 130 meters, and a total concrete volume of about 500,000 cubic meters. After being filled with water, a 48-meter-deep water cushion will be formed to undertake the task of flood discharge and energy dissipation with high head, high flow rate, and huge discharge volume. The maximum discharge flow can reach 30,000 cubic meters per second, and the maximum discharge power can reach 60,000 MW.
The construction technology of the water cushion pond is complicated, and the requirements for the smoothness of the flow surface and the appearance quality are high. The inverted arch floor with a thickness of 4 meters needs to be cast at one time. Baihetan Engineering and Construction Department jointly participated in the optimization of construction plans such as cutting and screeding, and explored a complete set of standardized construction techniques and elaborate thermal insulation and moisturizing measures, so that the water cushion pond reached the quality standard of quality projects.
During the construction of the water cushion pond, the joint construction parties of the Ministry of Engineering and Construction also overcome the unfavorable conditions such as limited construction site, large interference, and tight construction period, and realized high-intensity continuous construction to ensure the water cushion pond is filled with water on schedule. No quality and safety accidents have occurred since the construction of the water cushion pool project.
At present, the Ministry of Engineering and Construction is orderly advancing various work before filling the water cushion pool.
Baihetan Hydropower Station is located in the lower reaches of the main stream of the Jinsha River in Ningnan County, Sichuan Province and Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province. The total installed capacity is 16 million kilowatts. After completion, it will become the second largest hydropower station in the world after the Three Gorges Project.