A 50-kilogramme piece of concrete fell from the Ekachai interchange bridge onto a footpath in Bangkok's Bang Bon district on August 26, leading officials to inspect the structure and close off the area below.

The concrete, measuring about 50 by 30 centimetres, landed on the footpath. Officials also found a severed lighting cable hanging from the bridge at the same location.

No injuries were reported in the information released by authorities. The bridge remains open for normal use after officials said its main structure was unaffected.

Loose concrete found beneath bridge

Department of Highways officers attended the site with municipal enforcement officers and Bang Bon district civil defence volunteers. They put a cordon around the affected section to stop pedestrians passing underneath while checks were carried out.

Picture courtesy of Bang Bon Civil Defense Volunteer

Sompong Tong-on, an officer from the Department of Highways' Bang Khun Thian highway sub-section, said a civil defence volunteer had alerted him that concrete had fallen from the bridge.

Inspectors then examined the underside of the interchange and found further loose concrete which had not yet fallen. Those fragments were removed as an initial safety precaution.

Old construction material blamed

According to Sompong, the fallen piece was concrete left over from the bridge's construction. Although the bridge had been repaired previously, vibrations caused by passing vehicles had loosened the old material and caused it to fall onto the pavement below.

He stressed that the incident had not affected the bridge's structural integrity and confirmed it could continue operating normally.

The Bang Khun Thian highway sub-section regularly inspects the interchange and has already completed some repair work, Sompong said. Officials will now coordinate with a contractor on additional repairs and preventive work.

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28 August 2026

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"...concrete left over from the bridge's construction..."

Fifty kilos of leftover construction concrete dropping onto a Bangkok footpath is beyond sloppy, it’s downright disgraceful.

This isn’t just “old material”, it’s basic maintenance that should’ve been sorted years ago. Lucky no one was underneath. The usual assurances about “no structural impact” don’t mean much when debris is already falling, and the bridge had been repaired previously.

Clearing loose fragments is fine, but proper accountability and preventive work should’ve been done long before this.

1 hour ago, Jim Waldron said:

This isn’t just “old material”, it’s basic maintenance that should’ve been sorted years ago. Lucky no one was underneath. The usual assurances about “no structural impact” don’t mean much when debris is already falling, and the bridge had been repaired previously.

Clearing loose fragments is fine, but proper accountability and preventive work should’ve been done long before this.

Yea, they are making a poor excuse. This happens quite a bit in Bangkok. Look at the elevated BTS/Skytrain and the amount of concrete slab sidings that have either fallen off, or, thankfully, been inspected and removed before more could fall off. About every third or fourth one seems to be missing. It's not necessarily sloppy work. It could be that after many years the humid climate takes its toll on the underlying rebar. The BTS is more than 25 years old.