Pinglu Canal: A Century Project and Corporate Responsibility
Pinglu Canal
Dec 27,2025
As a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and a landmark initiative for accelerating the building of a transportation power, the Pinglu Canal undertakes the crucial mission of breaking the bottleneck of southwest China's access to the sea and enabling the implementation of national strategies. It stands as a monumental feat of China's infrastructure construction in the new era.
Zhongji, a professional enterprise with years of experience in steel formwork manufacturing, has always upheld the original aspiration of "empowering major projects and fulfilling social responsibilities". We are honored to be deeply involved in this national strategic project, undertaking the steel formwork business for the core sections of the Pinglu Canal in Guangxi. With our strong technical capabilities, we lay a solid foundation for the project; with our sense of responsibility, we escort the construction process, injecting Zhongji's strength into the advancement of this century-defining project.
Deeply Engaged in Frontline Construction: Laying a Solid Foundation with Professional Strength
The Pinglu Canal project features high construction standards and great construction difficulties. The quality of concrete pouring for core structures such as hub ship locks and water conveyance corridors directly determines the project's safety and service life. As a key supporting material, steel formwork's quality, adaptability and stability have become the core support for overcoming construction bottlenecks. Leveraging years of accumulated experience in steel formwork R&D, manufacturing and large-scale infrastructure project services, Zhongji stood out among numerous participating enterprises, successfully winning the bid for the core sections of the Pinglu Canal in Guangxi. We shoulder the responsibility of R&D, production and supply of steel formwork for the relevant structures of the three major hubs: Madao, Qishi and Qingnian.
To accurately meet the project's requirements, Zhongji set up a special service team led by senior engineers, which went deep into the frontlines of project sites in Hengzhou, Nanning and Lingshan, Qinzhou. The team conducted a comprehensive survey of local geological conditions, climate characteristics and construction challenges. Combined with the complex structural features of core structures like stepped ship locks and water conveyance corridors, the team custom-developed high-strength and highly adaptable special steel formwork. In response to the stringent requirements of mass concrete pouring and high-precision structural forming, we optimized the layout of formwork ribs and connection methods, and adopted modular production processes. These measures ensure that the formwork has excellent load-bearing stability and splicing tightness, enabling it to cope with the complex construction scenarios of the project, such as a 65-meter water level drop and large-volume concrete pouring.
Up to now, Zhongji has efficiently completed the production and delivery of approximately 7,800 tons of steel formwork. From raw material selection to finished product delivery, every production process undergoes strict quality inspection, fully complying with the project's design standards, and providing reliable guarantee for the precise forming of concrete components. Meanwhile, Zhongji dispatched a professional on-site service team to station at the project site throughout the construction period, closely following the construction progress, and providing full-process services including formwork installation guidance, technical debugging and problem troubleshooting. We promptly respond to and resolve various technical problems arising during construction, effectively improving construction efficiency, and laying a solid foundation for the smooth progress of the main structure construction of the three major hubs in the Guangxi section.
Confronting Technical Challenges: Promoting Project Progress with Innovative Breakthroughs
The construction of the Pinglu Canal is tantamount to a tough technical campaign, where every technological breakthrough is crucial to the overall project. Faced with three major core technical challenges, Zhongji made targeted breakthroughs with its innovative R&D capabilities, demonstrating its professional strength.
To address the core challenge of the 65-meter water level drop in the project, the three-level stepped ship locks, especially the water-saving ship lock water conveyance system of the Madao Hub, have extremely high requirements for the strength, precision and durability of concrete components. Through multiple rounds of precise structural calculations and technical demonstrations, the Zhongji team optimized the steel formwork design scheme, greatly improving the formwork's load-bearing performance and splicing tightness. This fundamentally avoids the problem of slurry leakage during concrete pouring, ensures the forming quality of components, and lays a foundation for the safe and stable operation of the stepped ship locks.
In the face of the complex geological conditions where the project crosses various landforms, Zhongji developed adjustable-angle combined steel formwork and reinforced supporting formwork in a targeted manner. These formworks flexibly adapt to the construction needs of different sections, ensure the stability of slope pouring and foundation forming, and effectively address the construction challenges brought by complex geology such as soft ground and steep slopes.
To meet the high-load demand of the project, which set a record for daily concrete pouring volume among similar projects, Zhongji optimized the formwork structure design and improved the on-site service response efficiency, greatly increasing the formwork turnover rate, ensuring the continuous progress of large-volume concrete pouring, and escorting the project schedule.
Practicing the Green Concept: Safeguarding Ecological Balance with a Sense of Responsibility
The construction of the Pinglu Canal has always adhered to the concept of "promoting construction and protection in a coordinated manner". Measures such as the construction of animal crossing bridges, 480-meter fish passages, 36 ecological conservation zones, and the establishment of a mangrove protection mechanism have been implemented to minimize the impact on the regional ecosystem. This concept is highly consistent with Zhongji's corporate pursuit of "green development and responsible manufacturing". We have deeply integrated the concept of ecological protection into the entire steel formwork production process, fulfilling our corporate social responsibility through concrete actions.
In the production process, Zhongji prioritizes the selection of environmentally friendly raw materials, optimizes production processes, and introduces energy-saving equipment, significantly reducing the emission of pollutants such as waste gas and residue, and achieving green production. In terms of resource utilization, we have established a sound system for recycling, refurbishing and reusing waste steel formwork, improving the efficiency of resource recycling, reducing resource waste, promoting the coordinated development of project construction and ecological protection, and contributing Zhongji's strength to building the Pinglu Canal into an "ecologically friendly project".
Empowering National Strategies: Fulfilling Corporate Value with Original Aspiration and Mission
Upon completion, the Pinglu Canal will become the shortest sea access channel in southwest China. 5,000-ton ocean-going vessels can sail directly from inland ports along the Xijiang River to major coastal ports in China and Southeast Asia, shortening the voyage by 560 kilometers compared with the route via Guangzhou, and saving more than 5.2 billion yuan in annual transportation costs. The project will realize the direct connection between the Xijiang Waterway and the Beibu Gulf International Hub Port, fundamentally changing the situation in Guangxi where it is adjacent to the sea but has no direct river access to the ocean. It will promote the formation of a China-ASEAN cross-border industrial chain, providing core support for the implementation of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor strategy.
The realization of these significant strategic benefits cannot be separated from the collaborative efforts of participating enterprises like Zhongji. By deeply engaging in the Guangxi section of the Pinglu Canal project, Zhongji has not only guaranteed the construction quality and progress of the bid section with approximately 7,800 tons of high-quality steel formwork products and full-process professional services, but also laid a solid foundation for the exertion of the canal's overall economic efficiency. Meanwhile, through participating in this national-level project, Zhongji has accumulated valuable experience in serving large-scale water conservancy projects, further enhanced its technical strength and brand influence in the steel formwork field, and laid a solid foundation for its subsequent in-depth development in the major infrastructure markets of Guangxi and the whole country, as well as its continuous empowerment of national strategies.
From the frontlines of this century project to the practice of national strategies, Zhongji has always been deeply engaged in the steel formwork field with the craftsman spirit of striving for excellence, safeguarding project quality with professional strength, and fulfilling corporate mission with a sense of responsibility. In the future, Zhongji will continue to uphold its original aspiration, continuously enhance its technical capabilities and service level, actively participate in more national-level major infrastructure projects, and write a corporate chapter of "empowering China's infrastructure construction and bravely assuming social missions" through concrete actions, contributing to the high-quality development of China's infrastructure industry.
