Abstract: Evaluating the waterway technical grade is one of the important foundational work of the waterway management， and reasonable division of the waterway grade is the guarantee for the sustainable development of waterway transport. First， this paper sets forth the status of the first waterway grading and the present situation of navigation channel classification in our country. Then， on the basis of theoretical research of the navigation channel classification， combining field investigation with expert consultation， it is found that there have some problems in technical grade evaluating of the waterways through statistical analysis and comparative analysis. Analysis results show that the original waterway grading is unable to meet the development requirements in the new period. The necessity of the waterway grade reevaluating， considering the shipping development in a healthy and sustained way and the new situation of the economic and social development, has been analyzed in this paper. At last， suggestions in four aspects for a new round of waterway grading work are put forward: navigation management departments should make clear the difference between the technical grading and planning level， implement a new waterway grading method， define the grading range， and reasonably determine the level year for the waterway technical grading， which can be valuable references in reevaluating the waterway technical grades.