Pattaya Being Washed Away by Storm Water

[Max69xl]

On 7/22/2020 at 11:24 PM, mike787 said:

YEP! washed away.  I say we all start a GOFUND to save Pattaya..come on lets get serious here.

Who cares? People who like going to the beach, don't go to Pattaya Beach. 

[shdmn]

It's designed this way.  If you notice, the sidewalk is shaped like a dam spillway in these spots.  No, that's not just done to allow vehicles to drive up on the sidewalk although they use it for that too, on the spillways that don't have obstacles in the way like a tree. 

 

The new drainage they just put in along beach road is supposed to help clear it out from the upper sois faster but I don't think that was mean't to prevent the overflow and sand washing away during heavy downpours.  You can't make the pipes big enough to handle that amount of rain in a short period of time.  It's just a fact of life with monsoons.  So they just let it overflow and wash away the sand and just fill the sand back in within a day or two.  No big deal.

 

My question is does it still flood higher up on Pattaya Klang?  I think the main goal is to get the water drained away from the Sois as quick as possible to try prevent them from flooding.  The tradeoff is that the overflow on beach road during heavy downpours will wash away the sand, which is by design.  I'm guessing it still floods on the upper sois because there is just too much water sometimes, but it should at least drain away faster now.

Edited July 25, 2020 by shdmn

[TaaSaparot]

38 minutes ago, shdmn said:

My question is does it still flood higher up on Pattaya Klang?  

After Wednesdays downpour.

 

[kinyara]

2 hours ago, TaaSaparot said:

After Wednesdays downpour.

 

That's not your photo!!!  Why are you pretending to be in Thailand? 

 

Which part of Pattaya were you in when it rained?  

[Wullie Mercer]

14 hours ago, johng said:

Once a year, every single year I think.

I can only vouch back to 1985, when soi baukau was a natural swamp, now man made klong!!!!

[jacko45k]

8 hours ago, shdmn said:

My question is does it still flood higher up on Pattaya Klang?

I do not expect it has improved that area, I believe there were reports of bad flooding only a few days ago. Building a large tower block on the 3rd/Klang corner at the moment is also causing traffic congestion.

[elgenon]

What was it Jimi Hendrix said? And castles made of sand slip into the sea eventually.

[AhFarangJa]

Oh well, looks like another pot of money to whoever has the contract to keep rebuilding it. Nice little earner Rodney........This time next year we will be Multi- Millionaires ...

[Pilotman]

On 7/23/2020 at 1:12 AM, Metropolitian said:

Looks like the old beach want to get rid of the fake beach..

 

Pattaya 1969

 

Pattaya 1973

 

Pattaya 2019

 

haha, it's never looked like that.  Photo shopped to death. 

[Pilotman]

10 hours ago, shdmn said:

It's designed this way.  If you notice, the sidewalk is shaped like a dam spillway in these spots.  No, that's not just done to allow vehicles to drive up on the sidewalk although they use it for that too, on the spillways that don't have obstacles in the way like a tree. 

 

The new drainage they just put in along beach road is supposed to help clear it out from the upper sois faster but I don't think that was mean't to prevent the overflow and sand washing away during heavy downpours.  You can't make the pipes big enough to handle that amount of rain in a short period of time.  It's just a fact of life with monsoons.  So they just let it overflow and wash away the sand and just fill the sand back in within a day or two.  No big deal.

 

My question is does it still flood higher up on Pattaya Klang?  I think the main goal is to get the water drained away from the Sois as quick as possible to try prevent them from flooding.  The tradeoff is that the overflow on beach road during heavy downpours will wash away the sand, which is by design.  I'm guessing it still floods on the upper sois because there is just too much water sometimes, but it should at least drain away faster now.

If it's so difficult, how do Singapore manage it in higher monsoon rains that Thailand experiences? Some parts of Singapore Island are below sea level, lots of reclamation too, but the drainage is sophisticated, extensive, large capacity and works, so no sand erosion on their beaches. It can be done, its just that the Thais can't do it. 

[Don Mega]

7 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

haha, it's never looked like that.  Photo shopped to death. 

Even more amusing is the original 2019 pic is taken from a website for a resort thats located out in the boondocks by Maprachan lake !!

[Grumpy one]

On 7/22/2020 at 11:10 PM, Meat Pie 47 said:

Why posting <deleted> like that? Better posting about Melbourne going down the drain

The Yarra already did that 

[newnative]

13 hours ago, shdmn said:

It's designed this way.  If you notice, the sidewalk is shaped like a dam spillway in these spots.  No, that's not just done to allow vehicles to drive up on the sidewalk although they use it for that too, on the spillways that don't have obstacles in the way like a tree. 

 

The new drainage they just put in along beach road is supposed to help clear it out from the upper sois faster but I don't think that was mean't to prevent the overflow and sand washing away during heavy downpours.  You can't make the pipes big enough to handle that amount of rain in a short period of time.  It's just a fact of life with monsoons.  So they just let it overflow and wash away the sand and just fill the sand back in within a day or two.  No big deal.

 

My question is does it still flood higher up on Pattaya Klang?  I think the main goal is to get the water drained away from the Sois as quick as possible to try prevent them from flooding.  The tradeoff is that the overflow on beach road during heavy downpours will wash away the sand, which is by design.  I'm guessing it still floods on the upper sois because there is just too much water sometimes, but it should at least drain away faster now.

      I agree.  I wasn't in Pattaya for the latest storms but I observed Pattaya Beach Road during the big storm a few weeks ago.  The new drain system handled things very well for the first half hour or so--there was no flooding and traffic moved normally.  However, after awhile all the runoff from the side sois and the Dolphin roundabout area made its way to Beach Road and all that water was too much for the drains to handle and the excess went down the open sidewalk areas that you mentioned.

     The new drain system does seem to handle less intense rains better than before--I've noticed some rains with little or no flooding.  I think during heavy downpours there will still be flooding until there is improved drainage on the adjacent roads so less water ends up on Beach Road.  

[Leaver]

9 hours ago, Pilotman said:

haha, it's never looked like that.  Photo shopped to death. 

Didn't the TAT once use a photo of a beach in The Philippines in their advertising?  

[Pilotman]

7 minutes ago, Leaver said:

Didn't the TAT once use a photo of a beach in The Philippines in their advertising?  

would not surprise me. 

[bodga]

On 7/22/2020 at 10:59 PM, tifino said:

Pattaya going downhill again...

au contraire it means the budget can be used again and again and  again and  again, endless money making  opportunities.

 

On 7/22/2020 at 11:24 PM, mike787 said:

YEP! washed away.  I say we all start a GOFUND to save Pattaya..come on lets get serious here.

put me down for 5  whole  baht, payable in installments obviously

[Wongkitlo]

10 hours ago, Pilotman said:

If it's so difficult, how do Singapore manage it in higher monsoon rains that Thailand experiences? Some parts of Singapore Island are below sea level, lots of reclamation too, but the drainage is sophisticated, extensive, large capacity and works, so no sand erosion on their beaches. It can be done, its just that the Thais can't do it. 

I understood in Singapore if you drop rubbish you will be fined. You can not even chew chewing gum. In Pattaya everyone just throws their rubbish and everyone says "mai bpen rai.   It rains.  Drains and pumps block up and it floods. No one cares. 

[shdmn]

15 hours ago, Wullie Mercer said:

I can only vouch back to 1985, when soi baukau was a natural swamp, now man made klong!!!!

And how is that relevant to now?

Edited July 26, 2020 by shdmn

[shdmn]

11 hours ago, Pilotman said:

haha, it's never looked like that.  Photo shopped to death. 

Maybe because that's not Pattaya.

[shdmn]

19 hours ago, kinyara said:

That's not your photo!!!  Why are you pretending to be in Thailand? 

 

Which part of Pattaya were you in when it rained?  

That's not really flooding.  That's maybe only a few inches of water.  Not even as high as the curb.  That would probably drain away in minutes as soon as the rain stops.  Flooding is when you see sandbags around doors to prevent it from going into the shops. 

 

This looks like the 3rd road intersection.  I think it typically floods more further down around Buakao.

Edited July 26, 2020 by shdmn

[morrobay]

On 7/25/2020 at 11:12 PM, shdmn said:

It's designed this way.  If you notice, the sidewalk is shaped like a dam spillway in these spots.  No, that's not just done to allow vehicles to drive up on the sidewalk although they use it for that too, on the spillways that don't have obstacles in the way like a tree. 

 

 

Just noticed that some of the wider spillways along the Northern half of Beach rd have been "curbed". So now the flooding must go into the new drainage system. I guess to prevent the beach washouts. See how that works out. 

[ExpatDraco]

Always the same with those so called reality pictures. It are just small and always the same parts of the beach that get hit. 99% of the beach is still ok.

[impulse]

On 7/25/2020 at 9:48 PM, Pilotman said:

If it's so difficult, how do Singapore manage it in higher monsoon rains that Thailand experiences? Some parts of Singapore Island are below sea level, lots of reclamation too, but the drainage is sophisticated, extensive, large capacity and works, so no sand erosion on their beaches. It can be done, its just that the Thais can't do it. 

 

GDP per capita in Singapore is $64K USD.  GDP per capita in Thailand is $7.3K USD.  (GDP per capita in the Netherlands is $53K USD, for the guys who drone on about bringing them to Thailand to spend Thai money on water projects)

 

Thais can do it.  But does it really make sense to hold them to the same standard as a country with 7-8 times the income per capita?  Projects that make sense in Singapore (or the much touted water handling skills of the Dutch) often don't make sense in a developing country like Thailand.  Sometimes, it makes more sense to do what you can and clean up the remaining mess, than to spend $$$ millions preventing it.

 

I'd like to see what the Dutch or Singaporeans can do on a Thai budget.

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by impulse

[Scott]

Off-topic post reported and removed. 

 

[Pilotman]

4 hours ago, impulse said:

 

GDP per capita in Singapore is $64K USD.  GDP per capita in Thailand is $7.3K USD.  (GDP per capita in the Netherlands is $53K USD, for the guys who drone on about bringing them to Thailand to spend Thai money on water projects)

 

Thais can do it.  But does it really make sense to hold them to the same standard as a country with 7-8 times the income per capita?  Projects that make sense in Singapore (or the much touted water handling skills of the Dutch) often don't make sense in a developing country like Thailand.  Sometimes, it makes more sense to do what you can and clean up the remaining mess, than to spend $$$ millions preventing it.

 

I'd like to see what the Dutch or Singaporeans can do on a Thai budget.

 

Now yes, but not when Singapore started its long road to being what it is now.  The work I saw was being done in the late 1960s, well before the economic miracle started.  It's long term forward panning and shrewd investment that wins the day, something the Thais are supremely bad at. 

[morrobay]

4 hours ago, impulse said:

 

GDP per capita in Singapore is $64K USD.  GDP per capita in Thailand is $7.3K USD.  (GDP per capita in the Netherlands is $53K USD, for the guys who drone on about bringing them to Thailand to spend Thai money on water projects)

 

Thais can do it.  But does it really make sense to hold them to the same standard as a country with 7-8 times the income per capita?  Projects that make sense in Singapore (or the much touted water handling skills of the Dutch) often don't make sense in a developing country like Thailand.  Sometimes, it makes more sense to do what you can and clean up the remaining mess, than to spend $$$ millions preventing it.

 

I'd like to see what the Dutch or Singaporeans can do on a Thai budget.

 

GDP is irrelevant . Its the budget, or what happens to the budget : The budget was 193 million baht (($6.5 million) 

https://www.pattayamail.com/news/beach-road-drainage-pipe-installation-to-begin-in-june-47271#sthash.Y6oOKx8I.dpuf 

This project failed with 2m  diameter drainpipes filling up with sand. The pipes were laid hundreds of meters out into bay. You dont have to be an engineer to question if there was was enough gravity drop to insure outflow without installing pump stations.  

This recent photo at the North end (exposed by rains) shows how the project failed with pipe full of sand. Do you really want to defend Beach rd. flood drainage  projects ???

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by morrobay

[impulse]

12 hours ago, morrobay said:

GDP is irrelevant . Its the budget, or what happens to the budget : The budget was 193 million baht (($6.5 million) 

https://www.pattayamail.com/news/beach-road-drainage-pipe-installation-to-begin-in-june-47271#sthash.Y6oOKx8I.dpuf 

This project failed with 2m  diameter drainpipes filling up with sand. The pipes were laid hundreds of meters out into bay. You dont have to be an engineer to question if there was was enough gravity drop to insure outflow without installing pump stations.  

This recent photo at the North end (exposed by rains) shows how the project failed with pipe full of sand. Do you really want to defend Beach rd. flood drainage  projects ???

 

You'll get no argument from me about Thailand having a corrupt system that siphons funds.  But I worked with dozens of talented Thai engineers in the 6 years I worked in BKK and Songkhla and I get real tired of reading about how incompetent they are.  Especially coming from folks who never engineered more than how to pour a beer with just the right amount of head,

 

They're not incompetent.  But they do work within a system that probably siphoned off half of that $6.5 million and allocated the other half to a politically connected company that didn't bother to hire the skills they really needed.

Edited July 31, 2020 by impulse

[jacko45k]

10 hours ago, impulse said:

They're not incompetent.

Some most certainly are, some of the posts above describe poor designs, in itself incompetent engineering. Another factor is they like to trim off the budget to appear to be doing their job, in effect rendering designs ineffective or incapable. Before I am accused of being a beer swiller, I have worked on projects in Thailand, and yes some talented and capable Thai people were present. But their efforts were held back as they would not go against their less capable superiors, people appointed based on cronyism or nepotism, rather than capabilities.... like a mayor.

Edited August 1, 2020 by jacko45k

[morrobay]

From: Basic guide to calculating falls and gradients in drainage.  A gradient of 1:80 is sufficient for drainage flow. That is 1 

meter fall for 80 meter distance. So 1/80=.0125. Then to calculate required fall in a 200 m drain pipe: .0125 = fall/200 . That is 2.5 m. And to find the required fall in a 2000m drain pipe: .0125=fall/2000. This required fall is 25 meters.

[Leaver]

On 7/31/2020 at 9:18 PM, impulse said:

They're not incompetent.  But they do work within a system that probably siphoned off half of that $6.5 million and allocated the other half to a politically connected company that didn't bother to hire the skills they really needed.

So that would make the whole county incompetent.