Abstract:The lower Yellow River features wide, shallow and scattered river channels with frequent river regime evolution. Submerged dams are key structures for stabilizing river regime and ensuring embankment safety. Traditional rigid dam surfaces built with stone masonry and concrete have disadvantages such as poor foundation adaptability, weak water permeability, complicated construction and high costs for post-maintenance. Combined with flood control engineering practices in the lower Yellow River, this paper proposes a construction method for improving submerged dam surface stability with gabion mesh cages as core components. Its technical features, working principle, construction procedures, quality-safety control points are illustrated. This method has prominent advantages including flexible deformation adaptability, water permeation and pressure dissipation, efficient construction, eco-friendliness and cost effectiveness. It has been successfully applied in multiple Yellow River projects in Shandong with sound performance.