Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 130 Development Necessity Argument

"Your Excellency, according to the detailed survey by geologists and hydraulic scientists, the mountains you see are geologically stable basalt regions. These rock structures formed by volcanic eruptions hundreds of millions of years ago are the most ideal large-scale reservoirs. Basin structure.

  The Songjiang area has numerous mountain water systems and extremely abundant precipitation. It has the natural conditions to form a super large reservoir. It only takes two years to intercept the flood to reach the design elevation of the reservoir.

The drop conditions of this mountain range are very good. From the foot of the mountain we are standing on to the depths of the mountain one by one, the reservoir can extend more than 80 miles away, extending in all directions like an umbrella, evenly distributing the huge pressure. The basin bottom structure of the feed reservoir will not cause excessive pressure on the earth's crust.

  Comprehensive investigation can draw conclusions;

This is an excellent dam site that is conducive to the establishment of super large reservoirs. It can be ranked in the top three in the entire Australian region. This is an assumption made in the Great Divide area where we have not explored more, and it also represents the optimistic view of our expert group. . "

  Feuerbach-Kant’s enthusiastic explanation aroused Li Fushou’s keen interest, he carefully observed and asked;

  "I think the dam site is relatively wide. The visual distance is more than 1200 meters to 1500 meters, which is more than three times wider than the Honghegu Reservoir dam site. I am afraid that the amount of work will not be small, right?"

   "It is true."

Feuerbach-Kant took out the drawings he carried with him. There were already a lot of data written on them. Li Fushou did not need to look at these specific technical indicators. Naturally, experts repeatedly argued. He only needs to listen to technical introductions. .

Feuerbach-Kant looked for one of the drawings, took out one of them, looked at it, and said, “The Songjiang Reservoir dam is one mile and 36 feet long and is located between two large mountains. The rushing river forms a working surface for safe production.

  Because it is located in the deep mountain area and has to pass through the Hongze Lake wetland along the way, a separate road must be opened for the reservoir project so that some heavy equipment can enter the site for construction.

We plan to explode the mountains and fetch rocks on site and use the latest reinforced concrete technology. This is the French engineer Kwahan first proposed the idea of ​​adding steel bars to Portland cement, which is to make full use of the advantages of high tensile strength of steel bars and high hardness of cement. .

  In 1861, Kvahan applied reinforced concrete technology to the construction of large stadiums, and achieved extremely exciting results.

  After nearly 20 years of practical application, reinforced concrete technology has been widely used in large-scale projects, including reservoirs, bridges, culverts, high-rises and overpasses, and has achieved remarkable performance.

Therefore, in the design of Songjiang Reservoir, I boldly used the reinforced concrete structure reverse-curved arch dam body design. This dam body structure has very good resistance and dispersive load-bearing structure, which is greatly reduced compared with the gravity dam body. The amount of earthwork, specifically, has been reduced by 64.2%, which is an innovative design scheme. "

Speaking of this, Feuerbach-Kant raised his beard proudly and continued: "I once mailed this design plan to Mr. Pope, a famous professor at the Imperial University of Munich. After his detailed argumentation, he was highly praised. Think of it as an innovative and outstanding design."

  Li Fushou said with a wry smile; "Although the amount of earthwork has been reduced, the cost has increased greatly."

"Uh... I admit that what you said is the truth." Feuerbach-Kant couldn't help but defend; "Good design must be realized by construction workers. For magnificent projects, only the use of reinforced concrete technology can ensure the quality of the reservoir. This is a price that must be paid."

   "Yes, the reservoir project is a century-old project, and this is a price that must be paid." Li Fushou muttered and repeated it, looking at the magnificent scenery in front of him as if intoxicated.

  Does this super large reservoir project need to be built?

  Will the abundant hydropower generation be wasted after completion?

  Does such a large-scale infrastructure project urgently need to be launched, and can the funds keep up?

  This is a large-scale water conservancy facility that has never appeared in the history of Australia. Should it be more carefully demonstrated?

  The answer is simple; it must be built.

  In the history of Australia, the Red River Valley city has never appeared in the southwest of Brisbane, and there is no such thing as the four cities of Qinglong, White Tiger, Suzaku and Xuanwu, and Christtown. What is the reason?

  The population is too small. There is no need for Brisbane to develop satellite cities around it. Only one city in Brisbane is enough.

  The situation today is completely different. Li Fushou has brought huge changes to the entire state of Queensland and quietly affected the entire Australian continent.

  As of October 1879

   There are more than 380,000 Chinese immigrants more than in the original history, and cities and towns need to carry, develop and live and work in peace. This is the historical inevitability of the rise of Red River Valley City in the central region.

  It’s not that Australia is unable to develop other cities, but because of its limited population size, it is inherently large and sparsely populated. There is no need to develop too many important cities.

  In Li Fushou’s plan, Queensland will gradually introduce more than one million people, and it will be completed in less than three years at the current rate.

  Such a large population must be diverted from large and medium-sized cities and towns, and cannot be thrown into the pastures to engage in simple agricultural and animal husbandry production.

  Songjiang Town is an important node city for the development of industry. This city is located 150 miles south of Red River Valley City and about 140 miles from the southernmost Pine Town. It is almost in the middle of the navel, which serves as a link between the past and the next.

  370 miles from Sydney, almost in the heart.

  As an important node city connecting the Red River Valley and Brisbane Twin Cities to Sydney, Songjiang Town has extremely advantageous geographical conditions. It has a vast water surface along Taihu Lake, from Taihu Lake to the southeast into the Huangpu River to the Tasman Sea, and overlooks New Zealand across the sea.

  The Huangpu River has wide water surface and deep river channels. The preliminary survey has natural conditions for freighters of more than 20,000 tons to pass, all of which have the conditions for the development of important industrial cities.

  As a superior

  It is impossible for Li Fushou to keep his eyes on the small site of Red River Valley. If he wants to continue to expand his influence, Songjiang Town in New South Wales is the best entry point.

  Once a large-scale town is formed, it will definitely have a strong suction effect on the surrounding towns. Talents, funds and resources will be brought together to accelerate the rapid development and formation of Songjiang Town.

  This is the consideration on the one hand, and the consideration on the other hand is to be prepared for danger in times of peace.

  Don't look at the current development of Red River Valley City, it has actually reached a bottleneck, and we must find a new way out.

  The hydroelectric power generation equipment in the world is still backward, and the electricity supplied by the Red River Valley Reservoir to its subsidiaries has been insufficient. This is the biggest hidden danger today.

  Hongshan Coking Coal Plant's development to the seventh production line stopped abruptly. It is precisely because of insufficient power supply that the rapid development has to be stopped.

After the launch of the third set of imported advanced steelmaking equipment in Hongshan Iron and Steel Plant, the same power demand is also a big problem. The heavy cranes, rolling and continuous casting equipment, large steam forging hammers and hydraulic presses all run by the steel plant all use a lot of electricity. In the next step, the contradiction between supply and demand can only be adjusted through peak-shift production.

  Hongshan Reservoir is nearby. Several small reservoirs have been built to find suitable locations. Unfortunately, the power generation capacity is still insufficient. This is the problem.

  In today's world, small thermal power equipment is expensive, high in operating costs and uneconomical. Products produced by using small thermal power are not competitive in the world, and the price/performance ratio has dropped by one level.

  Take the most power-consuming coking coal as an example;

Germany uses today’s extremely energy-intensive small thermal power plants to produce coking coal. The cost per ton is 1 pound, 12 shillings and 3 pence, which is equivalent to almost US$7.9, plus high-quality coal resources of US$2.2, ocean transportation costs US$4 a ton, and others Various miscellaneous taxes and fees include port charges of US$1.3 per ton, and the total cost reaches US$15.4. Together with the profits of the manufacturers and distributors, it reaches up to US$22 per ton in the hands of the end user.

  This level of profit is not a huge profit, and it is only slightly higher than the normal level.

  The cost of high-quality coking coal produced in the Red River Valley is the same as that of German exports. The biggest advantage lies in the cost of hydropower and coal.

  It only costs 0.34 US dollars to mine one ton of coal, plus other costs not more than 0.4 US dollars. Except for the necessary profits of the coal mine, all the others have flowed into Li Fushou’s pockets.

  The same is true for hydropower. The cost of hydropower to produce one ton of coking coal does not exceed $1, and the huge excess profits are all intercepted and finally flowed into Li Fushou’s pocket.

  The huge cost advantage makes the high-quality resources produced by the Red River Valley dare to compete with anyone.

  Even if it drops to US$17-18 a ton, it can still make a lot of money.

  The cost gap between hydropower and small thermal power is the key to price competitiveness.

  It’s a bit like the very low cost of oil extraction in the later generations of Saudi Arabia, and the high cost of oil extraction in Saudi Arabia.

  In the world's coal resources, not all coal can produce coking coal. According to the pros and cons of coal resources, it is probably between 10% and 25%. The proportion in Australia can reach 36%, which is extremely high.

There are also many types of coking coal. Bituminous coal includes gas coal, fat coal, gas fat coal, coking coal, lean coal and lean lean coal, among which the best is coking coal. Australia’s high-quality coal resources are almost 4 tons. Produce one ton of high-quality coking coal, which can be sold at a high price of US$22 per ton in the international market.

  This kind of high-quality coal only accounts for 3% to 5% of coal resources. This is the fundamental reason why high-quality coking coal is extremely scarce.

  In comparison, the steel plate exported by Hongshan Iron and Steel Plant is only 23.5 US dollars a ton, which shows the high price of coking coal.

It is undoubtedly painful to sit on a large amount of wealth that cannot be realized due to the bottleneck of hydropower resources.

   Standing in the position of Li Fushou, he can take a comprehensive overview and see the necessity and urgency of Songjiang's development. Then, as the source of driving force for the development of Songjiang Town, the construction of Songjiang Reservoir is imperative.

  It has been almost three years from the demonstration to the final use. From now on, it will be around the end of 1882. At that time, the population of Queensland will surge by one million, and the contradiction between resource supply and demand will become more prominent, especially electricity.

  Those who do not seek the overall situation are not enough to seek a domain.

  (End of this chapter)