Earthquake Rocks Bangkok: Building Collapses with 40 people inside

[matchar]

Here is an update from the developer regarding the repair job on the ground floor pillar that some people have posted photos of here...

 

Progress Update on the Column Repair at LIFE Ladprao Valley:

 

Latest Update (March 30, 2025): Today, government officials visited the LIFE Ladprao Valley project site. The team included: • Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Department of Public Works • Chatuchak District Office of Public Works • Construction experts from the Engineering Institute of Thailand • Associate Professor Sub-Lt. Dr. Supachai Sinthavorn, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Srinakharinwirot University, one of the members of the inspection team.

 

The visit was to inspect the progress of the structural repair work. All involved parties have acknowledged and agreed on the repair steps and procedures currently being carried out. The method being used is “Jacketing Column”—encasing the existing column with a newly cast concrete jacket, designed based on structural engineering calculations.

 

Completed Steps: 1. Sealed the area with fiber-reinforced cement to prevent the epoxy pressure grout from leaking during injection. The purpose of the epoxy injection is to fill and bond small cracks in the original concrete. 2. Installed formwork and poured high-strength, non-shrink premixed mortar to restore the original cross-sectional area of the column.

 

Ongoing Step: 3. Reinforcing the column with 25 mm thick steel plates, wrapped around the column to a height of 3.60 meters from the floor.

 

Next Steps to be Carried Out: 4. Inject epoxy pressure grout between the steel plates and the original concrete. 5. Further reinforce the column by increasing its cross-sectional area by 15 cm on each side. This includes installing 24 reinforcement bars (20 mm diameter), tied with stirrups (12 mm diameter) at 20 cm spacing, and pouring concrete from the footing up to the top of the column beneath the 3rd-floor slab.

 

All parties have been working on the repairs since the day of the earthquake, involving a team of AP engineers, third-party experts, senior structural engineers, and contractors. The entire repair process is expected to be completed by April 4, 2025, following sound engineering principles.

[MikeandDow]

Just now, matchar said:

Here is an update from the developer regarding the repair job on the ground floor pillar that some people have posted photos of here...

 

Progress Update on the Column Repair at LIFE Ladprao Valley:

 

Latest Update (March 30, 2025): Today, government officials visited the LIFE Ladprao Valley project site. The team included: • Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Department of Public Works • Chatuchak District Office of Public Works • Construction experts from the Engineering Institute of Thailand • Associate Professor Sub-Lt. Dr. Supachai Sinthavorn, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Srinakharinwirot University, one of the members of the inspection team.

 

The visit was to inspect the progress of the structural repair work. All involved parties have acknowledged and agreed on the repair steps and procedures currently being carried out. The method being used is “Jacketing Column”—encasing the existing column with a newly cast concrete jacket, designed based on structural engineering calculations.

 

Completed Steps: 1. Sealed the area with fiber-reinforced cement to prevent the epoxy pressure grout from leaking during injection. The purpose of the epoxy injection is to fill and bond small cracks in the original concrete. 2. Installed formwork and poured high-strength, non-shrink premixed mortar to restore the original cross-sectional area of the column.

 

Ongoing Step: 3. Reinforcing the column with 25 mm thick steel plates, wrapped around the column to a height of 3.60 meters from the floor.

 

Next Steps to be Carried Out: 4. Inject epoxy pressure grout between the steel plates and the original concrete. 5. Further reinforce the column by increasing its cross-sectional area by 15 cm on each side. This includes installing 24 reinforcement bars (20 mm diameter), tied with stirrups (12 mm diameter) at 20 cm spacing, and pouring concrete from the footing up to the top of the column beneath the 3rd-floor slab.

 

All parties have been working on the repairs since the day of the earthquake, involving a team of AP engineers, third-party experts, senior structural engineers, and contractors. The entire repair process is expected to be completed by April 4, 2025, following sound engineering principles.

WOW !!   Total over kill

[Patong2021]

20 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Interesting response - particularly how monsoon season could increase the impact of liquefaction after influencing the water table in Bangkok.

 

 

I covered various similar examples of other cites with similar Geological settings in this thread: 

 

 

Your comment  made sense. And of course some twit had to leave a funny face emoji.

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, Patong2021 said:

 

Your comment  made sense. And of course some twit had to leave a funny face emoji.

 

Lots of good info from good people on these threads... And yes, it seems there are some juvenile twits who leave a laughing emoji - most of it is personal from idiots who carry a vendetta after being called out for being utter idiots and morons in other threads...   

 

... Its a shame we don't go back to seeing who left the emoji - the same guys trolling with them would perhaps think twice about between halfwitted cowards... 

 

 

[Rolo89]

3 hours ago, matchar said:

All parties have been working on the repairs since the day of the earthquake

Sends alarm bells ringing. 

 

How can they have started on structural repairs from the day of the earthquake? These things need to be invesigated properly and a proper assessment would take place about a week after the event rather than right away.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 4/1/2025 at 4:23 PM, Rolo89 said:

Friends building has 5 out of 6 lifts closed due to damage, but the whole building has been signed off as perfectly safe in rapid time by an unnamed engineer. 

 

Said friend is staying away and wont stay in his flat on the 38th floor!

 

AFAICT, this week, the Thai government and leadership seem to be in one GREAT HURRY of a rush to put the whole EQ thing behind them, out of sight and out of mind. And that includes the collapsed State Audit office building.

 

If you look over the past two days, they're unusually busy talking about how international tourism and events can continue uninterrupted and talking about the upcoming Songkran holidays.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Meanwhile, AFAICT, the government has already ceased their prior nightly televised EQ updates. They had been nightly at 7 p.m. But in looking tonight, I didn't find a version for today in any of the usual places.

 

However, I did catch this in one of Thai PBS's broadcasts tonight -- a recap tally bulletin board from the collapsed State Audit Building site, translated from Thai with Google Translate: (obviously, the "2015" year reference by Google is a translation mistake that should be "2025".

 

As of 3 pm this afternoon:

96 victims, consisting of:

--15 fatalities

--9 injured (and rescued)

--72 still unaccounted for

 

I'm wondering how long it's going to be, (if and/or when) the authorities start adding the still unaccounted for numbers into the deaths tally? Or maybe the government will decide to leave those just permanently unaccounted for?

 

 

 

 

[matchar]

2 hours ago, Rolo89 said:

Sends alarm bells ringing. 

 

How can they have started on structural repairs from the day of the earthquake? These things need to be invesigated properly and a proper assessment would take place about a week after the event rather than right away.

Yes it does seem rather hurried but not as bad as I expected...at least they reinforced it and didn't just cover it with cement.

[Sir Dude]

Clearly crappy corrupt Chinese company construction with them cutting corners, but thinking no-one will notice and we can just pocket the difference and run away. This earthquake caught them out and exposed their evil (they thought it would all be ok and they can just bail after finishing)... what if the finished building had been full of Thai government workers and then it fell later? 

The Chinese are a nightmare, they even tried to take away the documents to do a cover-up (probably ordered by Beijing), so that no-one knows anything in the same style they do in China.

Can't trust the Chinese for anything... and this is great example, which is hugely embarrassing and massive loss of face. Karma for the CCP and their awful regime.

[MikeandDow]

12 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

Clearly crappy corrupt Chinese company construction with them cutting corners, but thinking no-one will notice and we can just pocket the difference and run away. This earthquake caught them out and exposed their evil (they thought it would all be ok and they can just bail after finishing)... what if the finished building had been full of Thai government workers and then it fell later? 

The Chinese are a nightmare, they even tried to take away the documents to do a cover-up (probably ordered by Beijing), so that no-one knows anything in the same style they do in China.

Can't trust the Chinese for anything... and this is great example, which is hugely embarrassing and massive loss of face. Karma for the CCP and their awful regime.

Agree, due to the huge embarrassment these guys have caused to china i think they wont be going back home sometime soon, there will be a bullet waiting

[ExpatOilWorker]

Penny stocks are not very desirable, but when you are a low satang stock, you can almost hear the toilet flush.

 

[p414]

On 3/29/2025 at 4:03 AM, Aussie999 said:

I thought that was the nickname for the airport

Yes..it was built on a swamp.

[CK1980]

On 4/1/2025 at 11:37 PM, Rolo89 said:

Many are moving out of their high rises. 

 

Don't think this will be forgotten about and moved on from quickly.

 

Lots have woken up to Bangkok is built on jelly and is very suspectable to earquakes far away. 

Yes indeed.

 

Many reports saying that it was a bit of a freak occurrence because of the shallow depth of the quake creating a resonance which synchronised with the dimensions of many high rise buildings, causing severe swaying, amplified further by the swampy muddy soil that Bangkok is built on. 

 

In any case, I agree that many will reassess the high rise condo life in Bangkok as an unnecessary risk. Whatever anyone says, the buildings are not designed to sway like that and the cracking is a sign of this, 'superficial' or not. I dread to think what might happen to these compromised buildings if another similar quake hits. All the structural engineers in the world couldn't convince me there is not a risk of one or more of these buildings coming down in a further event.

 

I for one am moving out of Bangkok. Loose my deposit and a total b*llache, but I'm not prepared to put my family at risk unnecessarily.

 

I know many will say 'you have more chance of dying crossing a road in Thailand' blah blah... This may be true, but.... at the end of the day I have to cross roads, I don't have to live on the 27th floor of a condo in BKK.

 

I'm really gonna miss my sauna and swimming pool 🥲😅  

[CK1980]

On 4/2/2025 at 12:03 AM, josephbloggs said:

Ok, fair enough. 

it remains to be seen what the final damage will be but there is a lot of panic (understandably). Most of the pictures and videos I have seen of damage is just superficial - tiles shattered, ceiling panels on the floor, plaster cracked etc. For an unprecedented seismic event in a city that has never experienced it before I would say it seems Bangkok did pretty well.

Of course I expect some buildings will have lasting issues but it doesn't seem like many will. Let's see. 

Yeah.... Let's NOT see from inside on the 27th floor if it comes down in another quake.... That's my plan.

 

Another thing that makes me feel uneasy is the speed that all the damage is declared 'superficial'. Within 24 hours my 33 story building was declared 'safe'. How can they assess ever part of the structural integrity so quickly? I would have thought they needed some serious investigation to make that claim, but everyone is just carrying on as if nothing happened. 

 

It doesn't sit right with me. We are in a hotel until we find somewhere else to live.

 

 

[Rolo89]

5 hours ago, CK1980 said:

 

Another thing that makes me feel uneasy is the speed that all the damage is declared 'superficial'. Within 24 hours my 33 story building was declared 'safe'. How can they assess ever part of the structural integrity so quickly?

Yes it's very worrying all the buildings they've declared are perfectly safe from a quick check.

 

There could be another earthqake at any time and these already weakened buildings might not fare so well.