ABSTRACT
The total quantity of the III-Stage RCC cofferdam of the Three Gorges Project is up to 1.1 million cubic meters which should be completed within six months. The Gezhouba Water & Power (Group) Co., Ltd has built a series of new world records on pouring RCC such as maximum quantity of 21,066 cubic meters one day and 476,000 cubic meters one month. The alternate climbing formwork by special design has allowed better resolution to the conflict between the lower early strength of the concrete and continuous climbing of formwork, it has played an important role in continuous concrete planting of the RCC cofferdam. The paper gives a detailed statement on the thought of design, character of structure, flow of operation and application on site which has been proved that this formwork can be operated simply and stably with fast continuous climbing while pouring (less than 10 minutes from detaching to erecting) and especially suitable for pouring large quantity of RCC in high intensity in civil engineering construction through optimizing structure design and simplifying the detaching device of formwork from the RCC surface poured.
