Verification

 The first concept of building the Three Gorges Dam was initiated in the early of the 20th century.Preliminary investigation and planning was done in the 1940s. From the middle of the 1950s to the present, more than 40 years extensive efforts have been made on the planning, investigation, design and scientific researches for the Three Gorges Project. Since the project is great in scale and complicated in technology, involving wide specific fields such as several scientific and technical disciplines, social economy and environment protection. Besides thousands of engineers and technicians from Changjiang Water Resources Commission (the Yangtze Valley Planning Office) which is in charge of the investigation, planning, design and research work of the project, a large number of experts and scholars from related universities, research institutes and equipment manufacturers all over the country have participated in the study of the Project. The nationwide experts were organized on several occasions for verification and review of the Project. The reexamination work lasted three years from 1986 to 1989 with 412 experts from varieties of fields involved. Since the 1940s, especially since the 1980s, many experts from such countries as the United States, Canada, the former Soviet Union, Sweden, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Brazil, have also participated in the research and consultation work.

The TGP is grand in magnitude and complicated in technology. The design for the main structures of the project is classified into five stages, i.e., feasibility study, preliminary design, technical design for key individual items, bidding documents and detailed drawings. The design for the main structures of the project was undertaken by Changjiang Water Resources Commission ( CWRC) , while specific technical items were consigned to be the responsibility of related design institutes.

The feasibility study report was completed by CWRC at the end of 1989 . After an overall examination organized by Three Gorges Project Examination Committee of the State Council, in April 1992, the Fifth Session of the 7th National People' s Congress passed the Resolution on the construction of the Three Gorges Project. In December of the same year, the "preliminary Design Report on the Three Gorges project" was completed by CWRC and formally approved in July 1993 after an examination organized by the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee (TGPCC) of the State Council. The technical design for the key specific items consists of eight parts, i.e., dam, powerhouses,permanent shiplocks,vertical shiplift, stage 2 upperstream cofferdam, mechanical and electrical equipment and facilities, dam safety monitoring, harbors and navigation channel regulation in the backwater zone (including effect of the scouring of the river bed downstream and the countermeasures). Except for the last item, the technical designs for seven items have been completed by May of 1995 . The examination of the design for each individual item, presided by China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation (CTGPC) with 157 famous experts divided into eight panels, has been conducted respectively and basically finished by the end of 1995 . The preparation of the bidding documents and the detailed drawings were unfolded gradually. By the end of 1995, there were in total 79 major bidding items completed and 8,800 detailed drawings submitted.