Greenlight for studies for "Thai Bridge" to connect Petchaburi and Chonburi

[CLW]

19 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

Tunnel, what are you on about? A bridge.

A bridge crossing open sea waters. Lol.

One storm and 4 meter high waves and that was it.

How to anchor and secure everything?

[FritsSikkink]

8 minutes ago, CLW said:

A bridge crossing open sea waters. Lol.

One storm and 4 meter high waves and that was it.

How to anchor and secure everything?

Google it, has been done for decades, current longest one is about 55 KM 

Edited October 7, 2020 by FritsSikkink

[TheFreqFlyer]

10 hours ago, whaleboneman said:

I've driven the road from Chumphon to Ranong several times - definitely not suitable for container carriers. 

Which is why a new intercity expressway (termed motorway in Thai parlance) will need to be constructed using tunnels. I've seen YT videos about it - they confirm, it would have several tunnels drilled through the mountains, also for the railway line they're proposing. 

 

Ditto for Tak - Mae Sot, which carries hundreds of container trucks daily, despite not really being suitable for it. Lots of accidents occur, despite the road being 4-6 lanes now all the way. That's because you go from 115m elevation near Tak up to 880m at the highest point at Doi Musoe, then back down to like 300m and then up to 670m near the Phawo temple, followed by a steep descent down to Mae Sot, which is located at almost exactly 200m elevation. It's a rollercoaster ride. 

 

They should have built several tunnels through the mountains years ago. 

 

Only now they are talking about this motorway project, but if it ever gets off the ground, don't expect it to be completed for at least another decade. 

[TheFreqFlyer]

17 hours ago, BigStar said:

The problem for us Pattaya residents is that the bridge will encourage all that boring riff raff from Hua Hin to come over and dilute the waters of our beloved cesspool. We already got the TVF Pattaya Urban Planning Board working overtime sneering at past and current projects. These Hua Hin burghers will be supporting further gentrification, raising prices, and wearin' sandals with white socks everywhere. Pretty soon the hotties are all outta site and we can't all walk around in nothing but Speedos, drinking Chang.

 

I vote NO!

Isn't that already happening thanks the Hua Hin-Pattaya ferry? 

[TheFreqFlyer]

11 hours ago, Okis said:

There is gonna be alot of "protected" rainforest being demolished for this.  I have peole close to me that work with forest conservation and i was shown map over the areas where this will be built.  

 

Also alot of natives will loose homes and inherited land. 

 

 

Technically, the natives that live in the forest or nearby are living on government owned property. The land definitely doesn't belong to them. They merely have informal "land use" rights. 

[TheFreqFlyer]

6 hours ago, phyx1u5 said:

not too sure about the bridge between petburi and chonburi, that seems like a cash grab. But the Thai "Suez" canal has been something that should have been done a while ago imo, but was probably halted because it would literally kill Singapore. I guess now either Thais don't care about Singapore or more likely Singapore will be a large shareholder on the project.

I disagree. The environmental impact would have been too big to bear. Why don't they get on with the job and get the Dawei project done.

 

There's an Italian-Thai "camp" located 5km inside Myanmar territory with construction vehicles just sitting around. They've done absolutely ZERO work for the past several years. Ever since I first passed through that road in August 2018 until my most recent journey in February 2020, the only work that has been done is on the paved sections between Dawei and Myitta, carried out by the Burmese government. Italian-Thai has done zilch.

[Grumpy one]

Someone has been taking way too much medication  

[katatonic]

16 hours ago, Albert Zweistein said:

I don't see the point to offload containers on one side in Thailand, transport them by road or rail to the other side and load them again. The bulk of containers from the far east to europe are transported by huge ships. The time and cost involved on each side, tugboats, pilot and port fees times 2 will make it not profitable. It is a dream that might become a nightmare.

The point is for imported & exported goods for Thailand, not the Far East. It is rather obviously better not to break the journey in the middle to go via Laem Chabang, which would be a large detour rather than a short-cut!

 

So if they can reduce a significant portion of the whole country's imports & exports transit time and fuel cost by several days by avoiding the trip around Singapore there would be a huge bonus to the Thai economy. Plus a big container port at Ranong providing jobs and distribution direct to the south of Thailand, peninsular Malaysia as well as Burma, not to mention Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Win-win.

[katatonic]

17 hours ago, SunsetT said:

They wont rest until they've covered the whole of Thailand in concrete.

They'd certainly need a hell of a lot just for this project too. I wonder who would profit from that then..

[katatonic]

7 hours ago, CLW said:

A bridge crossing open sea waters. Lol.

One storm and 4 meter high waves and that was it.

How to anchor and secure everything?

As I said earlier, not really a bridge, just a road mainly. You don't get 4-metre-high waves in water less than 5 metres deep. Pilings and earth berms would be simple. Having said that, it wouldn't be much fun crossing in a storm. Hope they ban sam-los or they'd lose a few..

[Reigntax]

On 10/6/2020 at 1:37 PM, mickymouse1 said:

Give it to the Chinese and t will be ready in 2023

And collasped by 2025 !!! Or rusted away !

[CLW]

18 hours ago, katatonic said:

As I said earlier, not really a bridge, just a road mainly. You don't get 4-metre-high waves in water less than 5 metres deep. Pilings and earth berms would be simple. Having said that, it wouldn't be much fun crossing in a storm. Hope they ban sam-los or they'd lose a few..

I understand but then the info-graphic is ridiculously wrong because it appears they want to build a bridge or tunnel right across the gulf of Thailand

[BernieOnTour]

My first idea was:

Do they really think to extract money from the USA with this stupid plan ?

 

Years ago, they had the idea to build the Kra Buri canal from North of Ranong to Chumphon.

Neither the US, nor Japan, nor Singapore, nor many others were amused by giving the Chinese a direct access from the South China Sea to the Andaman Sea, omitting the Street of Malacca...

 

And now, they come up with this ridiculous plan.

... A container ship of the New Panamax class has a capacity of 14,000 containers.

Who will finance that? China? - and Cambodia or Sri Lanka are the blueprints ?

 

Or just trying to build up pressure to extract an US loan ? 555

Edited October 8, 2020 by BernieOnTour

[BernieOnTour]

On 10/6/2020 at 10:00 AM, mr_lob said:

Anyone smell 'China debt trap'?

some might also call it the ‘China bribe trap’ ????

[BernieOnTour]

On 10/6/2020 at 4:48 PM, katatonic said:

It wouldn't have to be much of a bridge, looking at the sea charts. None of it is over 5 metres deep so they could probably just lay the road on dredged & sprayed berms plus piled sections, with a bridge for ships in the middle. Not that I'm a road engineer, but it would surely be easier than the Hong Kong airport bridge and road project in the 90's.

I wouldn’t be astonished, if they plan it like that...

 

However, that “hard shoulder traversing” -not piled-  could be an environmental desaster for the northern part of the Gulf of Siam - 80km cut off with a small opening 1.5 km to each side for the bridge to get a, let’s say, navigable height of 65m.

 

Add in to that the disfunctional or simply not existing sewage treatment plants ...

[essox essox]

15 hours ago, Reigntax said:

And collasped by 2025 !!! Or rusted away !

how does concrete RUST AWAY ???

[impulse]

7 hours ago, essox essox said:

23 hours ago, Reigntax said:

And collasped by 2025 !!! Or rusted away !

how does concrete RUST AWAY ???

 

The rebar rusts away.

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by impulse

[impulse]

If the Brits/Frogs can build a 50km chunnel in 5 years, making one a little longer shouldn't be much of a challenge.  They don't even need to go as deep...

I'd suggest limiting it to rail, like the chunnel.  Unless Thailand gets serious about traffic enforcement.  Which ain't gonna happen in my lifetime.

[rickudon]

Absurd idea. The distance saving would be about 600-1200 kilometres (depending on origin and destination). It would take a container ship only about 2-4 days to do this. Unloading containers, reloading onto trains or trucks, travel across Thailand and unloading again and loading onto ships would take just as long (if  everything worked very efficiently ????) so no time saving. Any fuel savings would be minimal, especially if trucks were used. (shipping is most efficient way to travel). Also 2 lots more port fees ... I am assuming there would be no customs issues ???? (we all hear about how wonderful Thai customs are).

 

I will not even start on the environmental issues or it would take another 4 pages!

 

The Kra canal has some logic, but not this.

[Okis]

2 hours ago, rickudon said:

Absurd idea. The distance saving would be about 600-1200 kilometres (depending on origin and destination). It would take a container ship only about 2-4 days to do this. Unloading containers, reloading onto trains or trucks, travel across Thailand and unloading again and loading onto ships would take just as long (if  everything worked very efficiently ????) so no time saving. Any fuel savings would be minimal, especially if trucks were used. (shipping is most efficient way to travel). Also 2 lots more port fees ... I am assuming there would be no customs issues ???? (we all hear about how wonderful Thai customs are).

 

I will not even start on the environmental issues or it would take another 4 pages!

 

The Kra canal has some logic, but not this.

The reason for this even being a topic is China. Thailand just want the money.

 

This would allow a alternative route for Chinese cargo but most importantly it would help the PLA in case of a large scale conflict. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by Okis

[TheFreqFlyer]

On 10/8/2020 at 3:47 AM, Reigntax said:

And collasped by 2025 !!! Or rusted away !

Yep. That pretty much describes the state of the Chinese built roads in northern Laos after 2 years. First road, completed in early 2013 I drove on in April of that year, from the Thai border at Huay Xai (before the bridge was finished, when they still had the ferry) to the Chinese border at Boten. It was smooth and beautiful, not unlike similar roads just across the border in rural Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. 2 years later and it was full of potholes the size of craters. Some good sections where you can do a decent 90km/h, but then have to slow to a crawl and dodge a hole the size of a truck. Landslides are common during the rainy season.

Ditto for the upgraded Chinese built section between Udomxai and Boten. Beautiful though narrow in 2013, a disaster by the time I last drove it in 2018. 

 

[DaLa]

On 10/7/2020 at 12:20 AM, TheFreqFlyer said:

They're currently building a motorway (elevated) along Rama 2 road, starting with the first 11km section to Ban Phaew to be completed in around 2 years from now. Eventually, it will be 75km long and end where Rama 2 road meets Petchkasem road at the Wang Manao junction in Ratchaburi. 

Thank you for the update on that. I have seen its progress over the last year and believed it to be a sky train extension.

[Robin]

Do not make comparisons with the Channel Tunnel, (UK-France) as that tunnel could be drilled through the soft rock/clay sea-bed.  If Gulf of Thialand has different geology, then a tunnel will not be feasible.  

Build a bridge, and you can guarantee that some idiot ship's captain will ram it is a storm; end of bridge for a year.  Alternatively close all ports north of the bridge; Bangkok, Chonburi, etc.

 

This idea has been floated to increase land values along the proposed route.  Check who has been buying land there now.  Remember who bought land on the site of Swampy?

[essox essox]

is it REALLY NEEDED...just to save 2 or 3 hours driving time??......and the money it is going to cost to construct ???

NO in my opinion.......

[essox essox]

On 10/7/2020 at 11:39 AM, FritsSikkink said:

Google it, has been done for decades, current longest one is about 55 KM 

a bridge was built from north Denmark to MALMO in Sweden many yrs ago........

[Surelynot]

Pound to a penny, one of their sub's will bump into this, knock the bridge over and then sink.

[metisdead]

Some troll posts and replies have been removed.