BMA Names Three Sinking Road Locations In Bangkok

[webfact]

BMA names three sinking road locations

Thanatpong Khongsai

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has found three road locations at risk of subsidence - at Wireless Road, Phayathai Road and Rama I Road - while the BMA Public Works Department will early next month begin to remove thousands of unauthorised telephone booths.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Theerachon Manomaipiboon said the BMA Public Works Department and district offices had surveyed 157 locations that recently underwent road repair in 36 districts. At 100 of these locations the PWD used ground penetrating radar (GPR) to scan for abnormalities beneath road surfaces. The inspection was expected to be completed this May, when the city will formulate a long-term road repair plan.

So far they have found three risky spots - a section of Wireless Road in front of Ayudhaya Bank; Phayathai Road in front of Pathumwan Princess Hotel; and Rama I Road near the BTS National Stadium Station's third foundation post, he said. Officials will dig to further assess the subsidence risk.

The BMA Traffic and Transportation Department, the BMA Public Works Department and the district offices will together plan the road survey and the installation of public warning signs. They will also review the road/overpass building/repair dates to allow officials to estimate usage time and maintenance of roads and overpasses. He said that they would also work with infrastructure offices to maintain sewers and footpaths. He urged the public to alert city officials via the hotline 1555 if they spot cracks on concrete-paved roads or sinkholes in road surfaces.

Theerachon said there were 31,395 phone booths in Bangkok - including 325 authorised booths belonged to CAT Telecom, 5,828 True Corporation booths (3,227 authorised booths and 2,601 unauthorised booths), and 14,049 TOT booths (not yet sorted).

There were 13,361 booths belonging to six companies with TOT concessions - of these 2,533 were already removed. He said the BMA Public Works Department and agencies would meet on May 21 to survey phone booths and remove illegal ones. The removal would begin in early June and should be complete by August 12 - or December 5 as the latest.

-- The Nation 2012-05-17

[GentlemanJim]

Have I missed the connection?, Sink holes and unauthorised telephone booths?

[BuddhistVirus]

Have I missed the connection?, Sink holes and unauthorised telephone booths?

Exactly my thoughts. Mmmm...

[OzMick]

I was thinking I could name 100, then realised it wasn't "stinking".

[jybkk]

Happy to see they are trying to unclutter the streets.

I sure hope they will send the bill of the removal to the owners of these booths.

[finnomick1]

I love the e-mail headline....sinkholes etc.,........and crackdown etc. Could we have a crackdown on sinkholes or are they one and the same thing ?

[finnomick1]

The BMA ( Bangkok Metropolitan Administration ) say they have found 3 new sink holes....they say they're looking into them. Oh please yourselves...

[sbk]

So far they have found three risky spots - a section of Wireless Road in front of Ayudhaya Bank; Phayathai Road in front of Pathumwan Princess Hotel; and Rama I Road near the BTS National Stadium Station's third foundation post, he said

[GeorgeO]

Removal of the unauthorised phone booths to be completed by August 12 ..... or December 5 at the latest....??

That's like me telling my landlord I will pay the rent on the 1st of the month ... or the 25th at the very latest...

[mrfill]

Have I missed the connection?, Sink holes and unauthorised telephone booths?

Exactly my thoughts. Mmmm...

Simple - fill the sink holes with the unauthorised phone booths

[planetdweller]

I hate to get swallowed into one of these. Could you ever get out?

"and he was never seen again , just vanished" , friends and neighbors replied in connection with his

sudden disappearance.

[zappalot]

There is an increased risk of subsidence if the heavy unauthorized telephone booths remain on Bangkok streets...

U guys just don`t think round the corner...

Edited May 17, 2012 by zappalot

[p_brownstone]

I have always wondered why there are still so many Telephone Booths in Bangkok - especially since most seem to be sited in such a way as to cause as much obstruction as possible to pedestrians.

These days virtually everyone has their own Mobile 'phone so who on earth would use these Booths?

Makes far more sense to get rid of the lot.

Patrick

[trainman34014]

By 2050 the whole City will have sunk so why bother filling in a few holes?

[sawadeeken]

Maybe these sinkholes are due to some of the 'old' escape tunnels from Bangkok's infamous prison, 'the Bangkok Hilton'................. (just kidding, of course)

[DGS1244]

I have always wondered why there are still so many Telephone Booths in Bangkok - especially since most seem to be sited in such a way as to cause as much obstruction as possible to pedestrians.

These days virtually everyone has their own Mobile 'phone so who on earth would use these Booths?

Makes far more sense to get rid of the lot.

Patrick

They leave them there so the illegal street vendors can store their tables and chairs etc. in them and also offer an on-site toilet to their customers.. Walk down Sukhumvit 23 and you can see for yourself.

[beano2274]

Removal of the unauthorised phone booths to be completed by August 12 ..... or December 5 at the latest....??

That's like me telling my landlord I will pay the rent on the 1st of the month ... or the 25th at the very latest...

Great days to choose, August 12 HRH The Queen's Birthday, December 5 HRH The King's Birthday.

[sawadeeken]

I have always wondered why there are still so many Telephone Booths in Bangkok - especially since most seem to be sited in such a way as to cause as much obstruction as possible to pedestrians.

These days virtually everyone has their own Mobile 'phone so who on earth would use these Booths?

Makes far more sense to get rid of the lot.

Patrick

Look at all the plastic and Aluminum there is to recycle. Think of all the Coke/Pepsi bottles and SINGHA BEER cans that will make..............

[pbeieio]

Theerachon said there were 31,395 phone booths in Bangkok

Did they pay for some one to count them all???

[petedk]

They have forgotten to mention something:

Bangkok - The Hub of Sinkholes

[kurtgruen]

Hmmm...Bangkok sinking...old news. Just wondering, how long it will take people to realize, that they will eventually have to move. (or maybe the Government will offer everybody free swimming lessons)

[LuckyLew]

I think the should leave the phone booths beside the sink holes

If the sink holes grow too big, the phone booth will go down the

hole with the people. Then at least the people can use the phone

booths to call or help

[monty1412]

Reminds me of GET SMART.. telephone booth and underground holes

[Nekton]

I hate to get swallowed into one of these. Could you ever get out?

"and he was never seen again , just vanished" , friends and neighbors replied in connection with his

sudden disappearance.

No you couldn't get out, not even light can escape from one.

[inquisitive]

What seems odd to me is the apparant conflict between the placement of hundreds (thousands?) of dummy phone booths all around the city before the big Apec Summit meeting under the direction of the last Shinawat government in 2003, and the new concern about having phone booths all around the city later under the prsent Shinawat government. I recall how these dummy booths were stuck up here and there to make the city look prosperous while hoping no one would notice that there were no wires connecting them to any phone grid. Remember? That was the same time that the trash bins were removed from the streets because they were deemed to be ugly looking and street vendors were forbidden to work, lest foreigners feel the city wasn't modern enough.

So if empty, uselss phone booths were a good thing then, what exactly is the problem with having ones that actually work now? Was it just an image thing back then, and now it is a money thing and someone wants to get rid of the competition? Perhaps the way to address both concerns is simply to leave all the phone booths in place, but make them non-functional?

[Colabamumbai]

With another year or two of record rainfall and flooding, I think that most of Bangkok could become a sinkhole.

[easybullet3]

why do I care about illegal phone booths?

- but I care (a lot) about Sink-Holes.

How comes they found THREE Sinkholes all in the similar area. Does this mean that they only bothered surveying the central area?

I am SURE that if they surveyed all of Bangkok they will find HUNDREDS of these Sinkholes!

Have you ever seen water companies and cable companies and repairs done on roads in Thailand. they WRECK the road, then they do the job,, then they cover it up with just a metal covering or some other sub-standard workmanship.

Sinkholes (in my opinion) are caused from crappy workmanship when companies repair or dig up roads (and don't re-fill them as they were)

[techboy]

I have always wondered why there are still so many Telephone Booths in Bangkok - especially since most seem to be sited in such a way as to cause as much obstruction as possible to pedestrians.

These days virtually everyone has their own Mobile 'phone so who on earth would use these Booths?

Makes far more sense to get rid of the lot.

Patrick

They leave them there so the illegal street vendors can store their tables and chairs etc. in them and also offer an on-site toilet to their customers.. Walk down Sukhumvit 23 and you can see for yourself.

Naaaw! Aw c'mon!

[Narratio]

easybullet3 has it mostly right. The sinkholes come from 2 things.

Firstly, there's the small ones caused by excavations that are not backfilled and compacted properly. You can't just throw the earth or sand back into the hole after you done whatever work needs doing. It has to be compacted, usually by flooding it with water and then vibrating it so it settles down evenly and dense. Then you finish off your upper layers of tarmac, concrete what have you.

The second comes from where either the water table has lowered, and with that water going away the solids have compacted downwards creating voids or from where underground rivers are continuing thier little hobby of washing away the earth that surrounds them, hoping to one day break free into the light.

Most of Bangkoks problems appear to stem from the first. There are roads laid under the new elevated structures where you can see that the whole of the tarmac road surface has dropped by 6-8 inches (150-200mm) in the past say 8 years. The concrete pile caps of the support columns for the elevated roads are breaking the tarmac as it slumps past them. An example can be seen in the picture at the head of this column.

Seems typical of contractors not finishing off the job properly as that takes money which could be better used on improving ones a mia noi perhaps.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Narratio

[Stevenredd]

"Officials will dig to further assess the subsidence risk."

Um, really?? If it's not typos, it's these horrible puns!

Some days living here is like shooting fish in a barrel.....