Homo sapiens

Hongsawady.

The eastern part of Karen State is at the junction of Hongsawaddy and Siam. There is a boundary river between the two countries - the Dang Ong River.

The river is also one of the tributaries of the Salween River.

Previously, because the Dangweng River was a boundary river, Qingye Group only dredged it to allow the upper limit of vessel traffic to reach 500 to 1,000 tons.

But it's different now.

Because Siam Sapiens Company has established a full-fledged branch in Siam, Jiehe naturally exists in name only.

The river channel that had been secretly explored had been blocked by a large amount of earth and stone, and the river was temporarily diverted to another location.

After the earthworks were blocked, a large number of excavators and transport vehicles were busy on the part of the river that was evacuated.

The Dang Ung River Dam is at the heart of this project.

After Liu Zhifan and Wu Nan cut the ribbon, they were interviewed by TV stations in both places. They were busy until noon, and then they had dinner together.

The place where the two of them were eating was located on a flattened hillside in the temporary employee town of the construction team. Standing on it, you could overlook the entire construction site.

"Although it is a temporary town, the infrastructure and service facilities are quite complete." After Wu Nan finished speaking, he picked up another piece of chicken steak.

Liu Zhifan smiled: "The company has plans for large-scale engineering projects. Such projects require thousands of employees. There is no problem in building a new town. Anyway, a city will need to be built here in the future."

Since there were no other outsiders in their private room, Wu Nan spoke more freely. He looked at the river construction site outside the floor-to-ceiling window:

"The project is planned for three years. Isn't it too early?"

"We didn't hurry. We used new technologies, such as coral cement that doesn't require much maintenance, iron and bamboo steel wire composite bars, and the most important crack repair technology."

Wu Nan raised his eyebrows and put down the fork in his hand: "Another new technology?"

Su Jincheng, the chief engineer of the project, introduced to Wunan: "Well, during the construction process of the building, even if it is not rushed, cracks are a common problem, especially for integrated dams, cracks are almost unavoidable. question."

"Our coral cement is no exception. Although the maintenance can be reduced, cracks will still appear. In recent years, we have rushed to build a lot of hydropower stations, and many dams have developed numerous cracks due to improper construction."

Su Jincheng paused and took a sip of water:

"So the headquarters has developed a special set of crack repair technology to solve this problem. The core principle of this technology is to use genetically modified fungi, plus special silicate and calcium solutions, to allow the genetically modified fungi to grow in the cracks and then form a bond. Extremely strong calcium silicate layer.”

Wu Nan is very interested in this technology: "Does this technology also have a crack repair effect on old reinforced concrete buildings?"

"Yes, as long as it is a crack-type damage, it can be quickly repaired in this way. The bonding strength is much higher than that of the original concrete structure. After all, this is a molecular-level bond." Su Jincheng nodded.

Liu Zhifan even said with a smile: "If the unit cost was not 2.7 times that of concrete, and there was a risk of leakage, the company would have planned to use this method to build buildings."

"It's pretty good. Combined with coral cement and iron bamboo steel wire composite bars, we can build quickly. In fact, three years includes the later installation of turbines, ship locks and other equipment. The main body of the building only takes about 18 months." Su Jincheng added road.

"Does it only take 18 months? This speed is really too fast. Technology is indeed the primary productive force." Wu Nan sighed.

The real data of the Dangweng River Dam is quite different from the data they published on the TV station.

The entire Dangweng River Dam adopts the design of a gravity dam. The length of the dam body is 1832 meters and the height of the dam crest is 156 meters. It is a smaller Three Gorges Dam.

Its maximum water storage height is 132 meters, and its daily water storage height is 100 meters.

This is not the most critical place. The most critical thing is the navigation lock on one side of the dam. It is designed as a double-line 4-level lock. The upper limit of the largest passing ship is 20,000 tons (1,000 standard container ships).

However, the figures announced by the two men on the TV station showed that the tonnage of the largest passing ship was only 3,000 tons.

Obviously this is deliberately concealed from the outside world.

The main reason for doing this is to reduce external pressure.

Because the upper reaches of the Dang Ong River and the Bin River, the largest tributary of the Chao Phraya River in Siam, have a minimum distance of less than 20 kilometers, separated only by a low mountain ridge in the Thaninth Ong Mountains.

After the river is dredged in the future, the two rivers can be directly connected by digging up this mountain ridge.

By then, the voyage distance for ships under 20,000 tons from Yangon to Bangkok and Chiang Mai will be shortened from the original 3,600 to 4,200 kilometers to 700 to 1,000 kilometers.

This is also the reason why Liu Zhifan specially invited Wu Nan over.

If the navigation capacity of the entire canal is to reach the upper limit of 20,000 tons, the Siam Branch must also simultaneously transform the Chao Phraya River so that it can be seamlessly connected.

As to why the Kra Canal was not dug.

The main reason is that it is not necessary now, and there is also huge external pressure.

The existence of the Malacca Strait itself involves intricate interests and strategies.

Once the Kra Canal is excavated, it will definitely attract America's attention, and Star Island will even be directly hostile to the Kra Canal.

Therefore, the Kra Canal is not necessary at this stage.

After all, Homo sapiens has now established a fully-authorized branch in Malaysia and controls at least a quarter of the sovereignty of Malacca.

Siam is connected to Hongsawady by land, and can connect Luzon and Malaysia by sea, so there is no need to be too anxious about the Kra Canal.

On the contrary, the Dangwong-Chao Phraya Canal is more important because it can promote the integration of Hongsawady and Siam and drive economic development along the route.

After all, this canal connects the northern interior of Siam, making the Tha Nyenthawong Mountains, which originally blocked traffic between the two sides, a smooth road.

Nowadays, the Damwung River dam is being built to dredge the upper reaches of the river, and Siam is building a dam on the Chao Phraya River for the final connection of the two rivers.

After Wu Nan learned about this plan, his expression was both excited and worried:

"Mr. Liu, there is no problem in dredging the dam and the river, but the excavation of the section of the Nian Ta Weng Mountains can be easily seen by the eyes of the sky."

"Don't worry! They can't see it." Liu Zhifan replied confidently.

Wu Nan's eyes widened: "How to avoid being discovered? Even if it is covered with camouflage cloth, satellites can detect abnormalities through the reflection band."

Liu Zhifan wiped his mouth, pushed the dinner plate aside, and then patted Wu Nan on the shoulder: "Next month, we will go to the site to have a look. The construction team will go there to inspect the site tomorrow."

"Mr. Liu really likes to show off." Wu Nan felt itchy.

Liu Zhifan shook his head: "Seeing is believing, and you may be confused by the specific technical principles."

"Okay! Then I'll wait and see."

The group rested for one night in the employee town and returned to their respective posts the next day.

And the other side.

The sky had just turned white, and the special engineering team, which had already packed up its equipment, boarded a dozen 500-ton small transport ships and headed for the upper reaches of the Dangweng River.

Although it is the dry season, after dredging, the Dangweng River can still allow ships of 500 tons to sail.

That low mountain range is in the middle of the upper reaches.