Century Project: Pinglu Canal Opens to Navigation; Zoomlion Customized Equipment
September 17,2026
'The Pinglu Canal has a special geographical location, with high temperatures and high humidity. Ice is added to the concrete used for pumping, which poses new challenges to the concrete equipment. To adapt to the special construction requirements, we carried out a series of adaptive improvements to the construction equipment, effectively ensuring construction progress and project quality,' said Zhang Guojun, product director of Zoomlion's Concrete Machinery Company.
On September 16, the Pinglu Canal, a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, ushered in the historic moment of completion and opening to navigation. Throughout the construction of this 'century project,' Zoomlion was deeply involved, fully meeting the project's needs through R&D innovation, providing solid support for the canal to connect rivers and seas with its hard-core strength.
▲ Pinglu Canal opens to navigation (Image source: CCTV News)
The Pinglu Canal is 134.2 km long, built to the standards of a Class I inland waterway, capable of accommodating 5,000-ton ships, making it the canal with the highest navigation grade in China. The project created four 'world records': the strongest navigation capacity among canals of its kind, the fastest lock navigation speed among canals of its kind, the highest water-saving lock head drop among canals of its kind, and the largest inland water-saving lock scale in the world. Facing the project's high requirements and difficulty, customized equipment improvements became Zoomlion's approach to overcoming challenges.
Locks are the core control project of canal navigation, and the miter gate is hailed as the 'heart' of the lock; its hoisting precision and construction quality are directly related to the safety, stability, and navigation efficiency of the lock. At the Qingnian hub - one of the three major hubs of the Pinglu Canal - the customized Zoomlion all-terrain crane ZAT6500H, with millimeter-level hoisting precision control, helped complete the hoisting of the several-hundred-ton miter gate. At the Madao hub - the largest core hub among the three - Zoomlion's crawler crane ZCC1100V undertook the hoisting of the lock body, efficiently completing the hoisting of steel formwork, rebar, and large steel-plate structural components, earning high praise for 'stable quality, good working-condition adaptability, and smooth lifting.'
▲ Zoomlion cranes support hoisting operations at the Pinglu Canal project
Zoomlion's full range of concrete machinery equipment also participated in the Pinglu Canal project, covering pump trucks, mixer trucks, mixing plants, manufactured-sand production lines, shotcrete machines, and trailer pumps. On site, nearly 100 pump trucks and mixer trucks were deployed on the front line, with pump trucks covering the 38-63 meter range, adapting to various pouring conditions such as the canal locks, bank protection, and slopes. The long boom can work across foundation-pit cofferdams, eliminating the need for extensive piping; the equipment is flexible and mobile, with stable concrete pumping, adapting to the humid and dusty sites in Guangxi, and working in coordination with sand-making and mixing equipment to efficiently ensure the quality and schedule of concrete construction. For the local concrete with high slump and high viscosity, Zoomlion's mixer trucks also carried out special modifications to the feeding system to adapt to the special material.
▲ Zoomlion pump trucks support concrete pouring at the Pinglu Canal project
More than 10 Zoomlion shotcrete machines were responsible for concrete spraying at foundation pits, slopes, and other locations, overcoming issues such as concrete segregation, and meeting construction targets at full load. Among them, the truck-chassis ZC3017 shotcrete machine pumped nearly 9,300 cubic meters in just over half a year, achieving zero-failure operation and winning the deep trust of the project party. The Pinglu Canal aims to 'build a world-class green canal and ecological canal,' placing extremely high requirements on the quality and environmental standards of construction sand. Zoomlion's ZSM200 sand-making tower provides premium manufactured sand for the waterway construction, with an overall production efficiency of up to 180 tons per hour, ensuring massive sand demand, while the production process has no dust escape, making it highly environmentally friendly.
▲ Zoomlion shotcrete machines on site
The Pinglu Canal is the transportation project with the largest earthwork volume in China. Zoomlion's earthmoving machinery mainly undertook the excavation of the main channel. The product series features strong power and efficient operation capability; the wide-track and low-center-of-gravity design enhances stability on soft foundations and slopes, ensuring construction safety in complex terrain, while also being easy to maintain and adapting to continuous high-intensity construction. The ZE750G excavator equipped with a ship-mounted long boom focuses on river desilting and dredging; the ZE375G excavator equipped with a breaker hammer focuses on breaking harder rock; the ZE485E-10 excavator handles digging of softer rock, with a high-strength ripper that is efficient and labor-saving; and the ZE550G and ZE375G equipped with large-capacity earthmoving buckets are responsible for riverbank earthwork cleanup, providing comprehensive support for the project's earthwork operations.
▲ A fleet of Zoomlion excavators working in the river channel
Tides surge in the Beibu Gulf, connecting river and sea as one. The completion and opening of the Pinglu Canal not only connects a world-renowned golden waterway, but also bears witness to the resonance of domestic equipment and the century project. Zoomlion will remain committed to innovation, continuing to serve national major strategies with high-end, intelligent, and green equipment, contributing even more vigorous hard-core strength to more magnificent construction blueprints.
Source : www.51cm.org
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