Pattaya: Rain washes away 400 million baht beach - barriers and tunnel proposed

[webfact]

Pattaya: Rain washes away 400 million baht beach - barriers and tunnel proposed

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Our pictures today come from Daily News who went to Pattaya to explore the latest damage to the main beach after it rained. 

 

Down on the sands surveying the devastation were Sompong Jirasirilert of the Marine Department and City Hall officials all scratching their heads. 

 

The pictures showed sandbags, exposed areas with massive ruptures and slabs of concrete.

 

In the background were piles of things under canvas and JCB's - certainly few of the nine million tourists that once graced the sands. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Daily News explained that the Marine Department had spent 429 million on widening the beach to 35 meters wide along a 2.8 km stretch.

 

This was called "Beach Nourishment" in their article.

 

But much of the beach was being washed back into the sea whenever it rained appreciably. 

 

They hit on a short term and a long term solution.

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Short term was to install barriers called "Geo Textile" that would protect the sands.

 

Long term was to dig Beach Road up again and put in more pipes to drain the water. 

 

ASEAN NOW notes that similar expensive beach widening work is now in progress at nearby Jomtien. 

 

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[2umich]

Literally 400 mil laundry. Similar to any road repaired. 

[sapson]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

Daily News explained that the Marine Department had spent 429 million on widening the beach to 35 meters wide along a 2.8 km stretch.

Money laundering at its finest!

[thaibeachlovers]

Sadly, situation normal in Pattaya.

Still, someone is getting rich from not solving a very solvable problem.

[Mickeymaus]

You have to see it positive. Perhaps one day if enough sand was washed into the sea you might be able to walk to Koh Larn. 

[Wiggy]

Water washing away sand on a beach? Who would’ve thought it? 

[ezzra]

Pity the rain didn't wash away the whole of Pattaya's Marine Department and City Hall officials and all those clowns who let such things to happen...

[JustAnotherHun]

there must be someone in city hall with a cousin who is sand dealer

[PETERTHEEATER]

From reading the above posts I get the impression that there is a general lack of sympathy laced with cynicism and sarcasm for this distressing event.........????

[Pattaya Spotter]

We often have daily torrential rains here in Phuket during monsoon season and the beaches dot wash away...funny that. Maybe because the beaches here are natural creations and not fake lipstick on a pig like the ones in Pattaya. The roads don't become impassable rivers either.

[chilli42]

The gift that keeps on giving.

[Destiny1990]

There’s finally some shade for the tourists underneath these cracks.????

[Moonlover]

23 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

We often have daily torrential rains here in Phuket during monsoon season and the beaches dot wash away...funny that. Maybe because the beaches here are natural creations and not fake lipstick on a pig like the ones in Pattaya. The roads don't become impassable rivers either.

I'm sure you're right about that. An artificial beach in a tropical environment is always going to be a temporary affair. Water is an irresistible force and when heavy rain pours onto a concrete jungle such as Pattaya, there's only one way it's going to go.

 

When it comes to beaches, when nature creates, nature preserves. When man creates, nature will destroy eventually.

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Daily News explained that the Marine Department had spent 429 million on widening the beach to 35 meters wide along a 2.8 km stretch.

Oh dear what a shame, next budget please.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

there must be someone in city hall with a cousin who is sand dealer

Yeah, and it ain't your usual sand either, this stuff is specially hauled in at great expense.

[Cake Monster]

Insanity at its Maximum output

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Pity the rain didn't wash away the whole of Pattaya's Marine Department and City Hall officials and all those clowns who let such things to happen...

They are fully aware that it will happen, as it happens every year. And then along comes someone who knows someone with more expensive sand and the 'deal' starts all over again. That's the way it has been for as long as I remember, and will continue to be as sure as Pattaya gets flooded every time there is heavy rain.

[MrJ2U]

3 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

You have to see it positive. Perhaps one day if enough sand was washed into the sea you might be able to walk to Koh Larn. 

Brilliant! 

[Gold Star]

Storms will come again and again and wash away the sand.

 

If they made a longer hidden channel extending to the beach but covered up under the sand out of sandbags and geotextile cloth, the water would be better contained on its way out to sea and carry out far less sand.

 

Runoff would wash away the sand on top, exposing the sandbag channel underneath, then could be covered up again and repaired very quickly in just hours instead of losing most of the beach every time it rains.

 

[bbko]

Beach Road + Monsoon rains = $$$, don't "fix" that money making cow if it ain't broke.

[HappyExpat57]

3 hours ago, Wiggy said:

Water washing away sand on a beach? Who would’ve thought it? 

Thought it? They PRAY for it - money in their pockets!

[Aussieroaming]

 

The municipality should review the drone footage taken of recent Pattaya flooding and currently showing on youtube video's  which clearly shows that a significant portion of the land on either side of the flooded Pattaya roads had minimal flooding, indicating quite clearly that the flood waters are running off of that catchment area and all that rain water is then draining into the road areas and therefore the roads actually become flood diversion channels, more like a canal design than a road, the opposite of what is needed.

 

The entire catchment needs to be re-surveyed to understand the main runoff points and then catchment drainage channels need to be installed at these points to divert water away from the road network and into a settlement area to control any sediment running off and the water can then be released. Otherwise the roads will always become rivers because the current design channels the runoff to the roadway instead of away from it. And the underground storm drain piping obviously doesn't have the capacity for the instantaneous flowrates being introduced due to too much surrounding area catchment flows plus the road catchment flow itself.

 

Trying to fix the beach erosion issue is pointless if the water ingress cause is never addressed.

[thailand49]

Scratching their heads!  Everyone told you so you bunch of idiots but I guess this is a good excuse to continue lining your pockets before you guys start over again can you go down to Jomtien and tell them to stop what they are doing!  ????  people given a job that has zero experience all due to family ties. 

[PB172111]

The beach is all fixed since the flood so why post old photos……

 

[shdmn]

16 minutes ago, PB172111 said:

The beach is all fixed since the flood so why post old photos……

 

Always entertaining watching the serial whiners here flop around like fish out of water.   Trying to squeeze the last ounce of negativity from any situation even if it's old news now.

 

I wish this website didn't remove that thread on the Sukhumvit tunnel all the perpetually wrong serial whiners where absolutely postitively sure was going to flood the first time it rained.  That thread should have been pinned at the top of this forum to show what a bunch of idiots these people are.

[Boedog]

That money disappeared long before the rains came 

[Jen65]

well , that's one end of the beach that's a washout but I'm just waiting on the other end down here at the far end of Jomtien ! I already posted that it was a grave error not to build solid rock/concrete block "groins" into the sea first and as they have not done so I expect the strong cross currents will wash away all that sand soon enough !  

[Golden Triangle]

2 hours ago, shdmn said:

Always entertaining watching the serial whiners here flop around like fish out of water.   Trying to squeeze the last ounce of negativity from any situation even if it's old news now.

 

I wish this website didn't remove that thread on the Sukhumvit tunnel all the perpetually wrong serial whiners where absolutely postitively sure was going to flood the first time it rained.  That thread should have been pinned at the top of this forum to show what a bunch of idiots these people are.

Are you going to tell us yet again that it was designed to do that, get washed away again and again ? We're not talking about the tunnel, we're talking about the beach, have you a thread to link to that would say that the beach was designed to wash away every time it rains ? If not why not ? Or are we just supposed to believe you ? Come on man, prove your worth, provide the link that states irrevocably that that is how it was designed, I'm hoping for a positive answer for when I wake in the morning or will call BS on your pathetic claim.

 

Oh, I found this, amongst many others re the tunnel, dunno which search engine you're using ????

 

 

[shdmn]

46 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Are you going to tell us yet again that it was designed to do that, get washed away again and again ? We're not talking about the tunnel, we're talking about the beach, have you a thread to link to that would say that the beach was designed to wash away every time it rains ? If not why not ? Or are we just supposed to believe you ? Come on man, prove your worth, provide the link that states irrevocably that that is how it was designed, I'm hoping for a positive answer for when I wake in the morning or will call BS on your pathetic claim.

 

Oh, I found this, amongst many others re the tunnel, dunno which search engine you're using ????

 

 

So you found a picture of a constuction site from several years ago?  Cool story. ????

[Golden Triangle]

2 minutes ago, shdmn said:

What did you find exactly?  Walks us through this yarn you are trying to spin. 

No, you provide the link stating categorically that the beach was designed that way ?

 

You also stated that threads relating to the tunnel & flooding had been deleted, just a quick link to show that Thai Visa / Asean Now do not remove / delete threads, ever.

 

So where is your proof that the beach was designed to be washed away with every heavy rain.............