Chapter 152 Inland Navigation System
The coal deep processing industry designed by relevant personnel for the development of Black Earth Port is mainly based on coke and coal tar, a by-product of coking. It is not technically difficult to extract asphalt from coal tar, and production can be completed locally. Substances such as naphthalene, benzene, and phenol, which are more difficult to refine, were not included in this plan from the beginning. Even in the base camp, these things cannot be industrially produced in the short term, because the various high-temperature and high-pressure equipment required in the production process will not be manufactured for a while.
Even so, since the base camp is in a period of development and has a long-term and large demand for high-quality coke and asphalt, these two projects are enough to keep the supporting industries of Black Earth Port in a state of short supply for a long time.
After listening to Qiao Zhiya's explanation, Ning Qi nodded and said: "These people will find a way...but it is also a good thing for the base camp. It saves the time of building a coke oven here, and we can also get the limited sea transportation capacity. More efficient use. With asphalt, our asphalt main roads should be just around the corner, right?”
Meng He also added excitedly: "With asphalt roads, the travel speed between the two places can be at least twice as fast as the current dirt roads, and we don't need so many people to frequently maintain the roads."
"Not that fast." Tao Donglai shook his head and denied their fantasy: "Tom also said just now that the management committee over there expects that the coal mine will be able to mine two thousand tons of coal per month before the end of the year after it is put into operation. The coking coal there only accounts for about 15% of the total reserves. We boldly calculated that they mine anthracite and coking coal at a ratio of 1:1. They can mine one thousand tons of coking coal every month, and the asphalt they can produce after coking is only 20 tons. Ton. What is the concept of using this bit of asphalt to pave roads? According to the construction standards of asphalt concrete pavement, we cannot even pave one mile of road from Shengli Port to Tiandu. The main roads are all paved with asphalt. The required asphalt is estimated to be about 400 tons. Black Tu Port cannot produce this much in a year and a half. Instead of using it to pave the road section by section, I think it should be used as waterproof coating first. Let’s go.”
Tao Dong had been in this field before he came, and his words were naturally highly authoritative. So the hope of asphalt roads was immediately shattered before everyone's eyes.
However, Schneider, a financial expert on the executive committee, noticed the profound meaning behind this industrial layout: "Heitu Port wants to start producing coke and asphalt. It seems that they have great ideas about the local profit part after adopting independent settlement within the group! ”
Being reminded by Schneider, Tao Donglai also came to his senses: "They are really good at planning! By the way, Tom, who came up with this idea first? Gu Kai or Tian Yeyou?"
Wang Tom hesitated for a moment before returning: "Qian Tiandun proposed it."
Wang Tom also knew a little bit about some of Qian Tiandun's plans. If Tao Donglai hadn't taken the initiative to ask, he had no intention of mentioning this detail in the report. After all, the civil servants are now very sensitive to the various development plans of the Military and Police Department. If they realize that Qian Tiandun has other ideas, the "mountain establishment" of Heitu Port will probably die before it even starts.
Tao Donglai obviously did not expect such an unexpected result. The expression on his face stiffened slightly, but he was considered an old man, so he immediately made a haha to avoid the topic: "Penny-pink economy" He has a pretty good mind. It seems that we made the right choice! In my opinion, there is not much difficulty in implementing the Black Earth Port plan. We can let them try in this direction. After all, it will benefit the development of both sides. Benefits.”
Regarding Qian Tiandun's plan, Tao Donglai, one of the directors of the Military and Police Department, naturally knew about it for a long time. Of course, he could also think of what considerations Qian Tiandun, a professional soldier, had to design a capable Development plan to help Black Earth Port increase revenue. The "mountain establishment" plan is a high-level secret within the Military and Police Department, and only a few people know the details. Tao Donglai naturally does not want to expose this secret project to the executive committee prematurely.
Fortunately, no one present at the meeting noticed the little quarrel between the two people, and the topic was successfully discussed by Tao Donglai. This plan to develop coal supporting industries is inherently beneficial to both parties, and the Executive Committee does not want to provide financial support to Black Earth Port for too long. After all, new colonization sites must have the ability to produce their own blood, in order for this to be considered a successful colonization operation , so the executive committee was definitely happy to see the plan proposed by the Black Earth Port Management Committee come to fruition. Immediately, the executive committee members present unanimously approved the decision to provide technical and financial assistance to related projects.
Although the coal mine in Black Earth Port has not yet been put into production, the base camp has begun to prepare for future coal imports, and various departments have begun to formulate corresponding development plans.
First of all, Victory Port will build a new dedicated cargo terminal, which will be located to the west of the existing terminal in Victory Port. The Ministry of Construction plans to build six to eight freight trestles here, which will be able to accommodate ten to sixteen large merchant ships docking at the same time in the future. The berth design also fully takes into account the future development progress of maritime vessels. The largest berth is designed directly according to a large ship with a displacement of 1,500 tons. The terminal will have a dedicated channel connected to the main road between Shengli Port and Tiandu. The first passenger and freight railway in Sanya is still under planning. The freight terminal is the terminus of the first phase of the project. When this railway is opened to traffic in the future, coal and other goods arriving at Victory Port by sea can be Loading the goods directly at the dock and transporting them by rail to the inland Tiandu will be far more efficient than the current ox-cart transportation system, greatly saving time on the road for transshipment.
The Ministry of Construction's plan is to start two major projects, the coal terminal and the railway, at the same time in the second half of the year. Although the technical content of these two projects is not particularly high, the number of laborers required is quite large. Compared with the previous hydropower station project, Even worse, it will be another great test for the human resources department in charge of Ning Qi.
The Ministry of Construction hopes that the terminal can be completed before the Spring Festival next year, but the progress of the railway may be relatively slow, and even if it is completed, steam locomotives may not be available immediately. Relevant departments are very confident that they will be able to build a relatively mature coal-fired steam engine within this year, but they are not very sure that they can build a steam train before the railway is completed. Although the principles of the two things are similar, the difficulty of manufacturing them is different. There is a big difference, and it is hard to say whether the skins will have to be hauled by oxen first.
However, the Executive Committee has no intention of hanging on a tree. In addition to the land railway plan, relevant departments have also jointly designed an inland water transportation system to fully utilize the shipping capacity of the Kita Duhe River.
This transportation system mainly consists of two types of ships, flat-bottomed cargo ships and steam-powered tugboats. The flat-bottomed cargo ships were designed according to later inland river barges, with a designed carrying capacity of about ten tons. Every three to four ships formed a fleet, powered by a 20-horsepower tugboat.
Of course, if you have to tow a few more ships, you can actually sail slowly on the river. The problem is that the river channel in the upper reaches of the Tiandu River is extremely narrow and there are many river bends. If the length of the cargo fleet exceeds a certain limit, then in the river channel The journey will be more troublesome.
This kind of inland river fleet can directly receive unloaded goods at the cargo terminal of Victory Port, and then sail into the inland river directly to Tiandu Industrial Zone. Although the speed is not much faster than the ox carts used today, the weight of goods that can be transported in the same time is several times higher. Before the land rail transportation system is put into use, the Executive Committee is prepared to use this transportation system as the main channel for freight transportation. Even if steam locomotives travel between Tiandu and Shengli Port in the future, this inland river fleet will also be a good supplement to transportation capacity.
When the Executive Committee came up with this system, it was not just focusing on the Tiandu River. In fact, the future development of the Sanya area is when this inland waterway shipping system will show its full potential. The Sanya area has two large rivers, the Linchun River and the Sanya River, with excellent navigation capabilities. However, the dense water network makes it impossible to lay a large-scale rail transit system here. The inland waterway shipping system will become the main inland transportation in this region. Now building this river transportation system on the Tiandu River is also accumulating relevant experience for the future development and construction of the Sanya area.
In addition, there is another extremely important inland water transportation location on Hainan Island, which is the Shilu Iron Mine located in the inland area on the west coast of Hainan. The local situation is much more complicated than that in Shengli Port. The straight-line distance from Shilu Iron Mine to Changhua Port on the seaside is more than 40 kilometers, which is more than four times the distance from Tiandu Iron Mine to the seaside port. If you want to It is extremely difficult to build a land passage between Shengli Port and Tiandu there, and the investment of manpower, material, financial resources and time are unbearable in the early stages of development.
The only feasible transportation method is to take a boat upstream from Changhua Port along the Shilu River to reach the vicinity of the iron mine. According to the distance shown on later satellite maps, the mining area is only a little more than one kilometer away from the nearest river. It will be possible to build a track between the river and the mining area, and then transport the iron ore out through the inland river transportation system.
This process may seem cumbersome, but for the executive committee, which is determined to build the island's largest coal-iron composite base near Changhua, this is no problem at all. In addition to the rich reserves of Shilu Iron Mine, the biggest advantage there is that it is close to Heitu Port. It only takes a little more than two days for a Chinese-style sailing boat to travel one way, which is much closer than the distance to Victory Port. Half of it, this has already determined that the cost of steel production in the Shilu-Changhua area will be much lower than that in the base camp in the future.
(End of chapter)