I've thought about this quite a few times as I'm making my way home. Why is the expressway so tall? Its about 5 times the hight of the tallest trucks. It generally runs above other roads, so its not as if it needs to clear buildings etc.

The only possible answers I can come up with are:

Light - as its higher up, the roads below still get a lot of daylight, so artificial lighting isn't required until dusk.

Status - maybe its just meant to 'wow', but this seems unlikely as its not really that impressive.

The same goes for the skytrain.....

Any thougths or ideas why its so tall?

in the future they will be developing streets and doing multi level crossings - for that you need a space below

How about 'whim' as the reason. Someone in charge just decided they would be 10m up. This then became the accepted religion.

Of course, if you observe around the Rama 9 - Ramkhamhaeng intersection, you can see a prime example of this Bangkok urban whim planning. A flyover, and 2 expressways have been built and all been forced to climb over and under each other. Academics have theorised the whims emerged during different eras demonstrating the longevity of urban whim planning as a valuable strategy in the Thai capital.

Like you I don't know but I had assummed it was perhaps planned for the future so that some high level walkways, transportation sysytems could be integrated without effecting the flow of the highway

The expressway from Bangna to Chonburi is really in the stratosphere. I've never been able to figure that out either.

Over compensate for smallness?

Only winding.... urban development/planning as previously mentioned would be my guess too.

Express Way, oh Express Way!

Wherefore art thou so tall?

I do suspect your secret

Baffles the minds of us all

Lo! Your unfathomable columns of concrete

tower before our eyes

piercing the bulging streets below

from imposing, heady heights

Your lofty thoughts we can but guess

as tyres screech , and metals clash

In the aftermath, the silence speaks

as Po Tek Teung clean up the mess

Poe Thanol

The expressway from Bangna to Chonburi is really in the stratosphere. I've never been able to figure that out either.

Nice view from there ...

Check out the high speed rail link from Suwannaphum (if it ever gets finished as opposed to Hopewelled), it's bizarrely tall.

Seriously though, it's all about maximising concrete usage to boost profits from corruption. I think the University of Hawaii uses Bangkok's expressways as a model of corruption in its economics courses.

in the future they will be developing streets and doing multi level crossings - for that you need a space below

Come on! How many Thais think of the future? I don't mean this as Thai bashing but I really believe that Thai people think of here and now and not future.

As to why the expressways are so high? Maybe they copy other countries.

I can see the sense in building the airport train connection high. I live on Ekamai and have often see how people walk across the railway tracks at Klong Tan causing the train to pass quite slowly. At least when they build the railway so high people can't just walk along the tracks. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll see motorbikes driving along the skytrain tracks when the footpaths are completely congested!

world's tallest airport control tower.......world's tallest elevated train track........world's tallest elevated highways.

Bangkok is sinking, and then there's rising sea levels due to climate change.

Maybe Thais actually do plan for the future after all.

Edited February 2, 200719 yr by sibeymai

I don't really have any explanation for the tall expressways, but I guess for the airport rail link, it has to go over the BTS line on Phayathai Rd....and it's been designed for a high speed train. If there were too much variation in heights for the rail track, I guess, it wouldn't be that safe for the high speed train. Just my guess though. (Note that the whole plan for the airport rail link was to link Don Muang and Suvannabhum with a high speed train...but the first phase of the project which is under construction will only finish at Phayathai station linking it to BTS.)

Because Thailand is the hub of Tall Things of course...

The multi-level crossings would seem the obvious answer if it didn't contradict so much the "what's in it today" Thai mentality.

Going off-topic, does anyone know what is that development on the Bang Na Trad highway going to Pattaya that has two high rise buildings plus many shop houses, all empty? It is near a river or waterway. Seen it every time I go from Bangkok to Pattaya for a long time.

Besth, yes, I've wondered that too. The blocks of flats are totally empty as are the houses around it. What a waste of concrete.

The multi-level crossings would seem the obvious answer if it didn't contradict so much the "what's in it today" Thai mentality.

Going off-topic, does anyone know what is that development on the Bang Na Trad highway going to Pattaya that has two high rise buildings plus many shop houses, all empty? It is near a river or waterway. Seen it every time I go from Bangkok to Pattaya for a long time.

Bang Pakong River

Why is the expressway so tall?

So you don't bang your head..

totster

I don't know if it was planned but it does keep some of the exhaust from vehicles up in the breeze and not hanging between tall buildings. It also gives some degree of shade.

I had wondered if the one down to Chonburi was because it looks like low, swampy land that might easily flood a highway at grade.

But I suspect the concrete barons had some serious top-table input here.

Going off-topic, does anyone know what is that development on the Bang Na Trad highway going to Pattaya that has two high rise buildings plus many shop houses, all empty? It is near a river or waterway. Seen it every time I go from Bangkok to Pattaya for a long time.

Besth, yes, I've wondered that too. The blocks of flats are totally empty as are the houses around it. What a waste of concrete.

They do not even have red aircraft warning lights on the top of them. At night they are totally invisible. Scary huh?

I have heard several stories, the buildings have been condemned, the buildings are full of ghosts etc etc.

Why is the expressway so tall?

So you don't bang your head..

totster

The additional centrifugal force acting on vehicles further from the centre of the earth makes the vehicles effectively lighter, so the concrete supports do not need to be so strong. Any additional cost incurred in making the columns taller is compensated by the increased revenue from fuel tax, as vehicles have to drive further (as the radius of their path over the curved surface of the earth is increased). Very clever really