Ring Road Nears Completion

[george]

Ring road nears completion

B8.7 billion project now 80% complete

BANGKOK: -- The royal-initiated industrial ring road in Phra Pradaeng district of Samut Prakan will open in December to improve transport between industrial zones south of Bangkok and the rest of the nation.

Surachai Thansitthipong, the director-general of the Rural Roads Department, says construction of the 8.7-billion-baht project is now 80% complete.

Major construction work will be finished in June and the finishing work will be concluded in October.

Construction of the industrial ring road was divided into three contracts. The first deal is for construction of a cable-stayed bridge, which is 550 metres long and has seven lanes, across the Chao Phraya river in Phra Pradaeng district. It links tambon Song Khanong and tambon Bang Ya Phraek.

The second contract is for another cable-stayed bridge across another section of the same river north of the first bridge. The second bridge connects tambon Song Khanong and Khwaeng Bang Pong Pang of Yannawa district, Bangkok. It is 454 metres long and has seven lanes as well.

The third contract is for construction of a large-scaled interchange to link both bridges. It is 1,659 metres long and has two lanes.

On an area of 75 rai under the elevated interchange, there will be a public park, a road museum and a cultural centre of local Mon people. The on-the-ground development is estimated at 430 million baht.

The Rural Roads Department is also discussing development of passenger boat piers in the vicinity of the industrial ring road with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Marine Department.

Mr Surachai said the industrial ring road will have three entrances and exits: Rama III road through Ban Rawee 1 road, Pu Chao Saming Phrai road near the Thong Khung railway station, and Suksawat road.

The industrial ring road is designed especially to improve transport of products from industrial areas on both sides of the Chao Phraya river south of Bangkok to Bangkok Port in Klong Toey and other parts of the country.

The ring road can serve up to 100,000 vehicles a day and is expected to relieve traffic volume on the nearby Rama IX bridge by 50%.

With the industrial ring road, cargo trucks will not have to run through congested districts of Bangkok to reach the industrial zones in Pu Chao Saming Phrai, Phra Pradaeng and Suksawat areas. Besides, ferry service across the Chao Phraya river in Phra Pradaeng will become a thing of the past for most of the trucks.

Chanika Tesdontri, the manager of Petra ferry service, said when the new ring road -opens, her company could reduce the number of its ferries from 15 to just three or four and the number of ferry piers from eight on the Pu Chao Saming Phrai side and five on the Phra Pradaeng side to three each.

That would cut its revenue by 80%. Most of her employees would return to their home provinces or find new jobs.

Instead of terminating the whole service, Mrs Chanika said a small part of it would be retained to serve some clients who should continue to need it despite the emergence of the ring road.

The ring road development cushions its impact on the ferry service as it expropriated land covering altogether over 10 rai on both sides of the river from her company and gave over 100 million baht in compensation.

Mrs Chanika said that despite the disruption it would cause to her business, she would be delighted to see the new ring road improve business and traffic flow in Samut Prakan.

--Bangkok Post 2006-04-17

[markuk]

Fantastic new, additional traffic trying to get down to the port....... is it not bad enough now...

[jdinasia]

looks like it should help alot with keeping the bigget trucks out of BKK proper ... good news!

[terdsak_12]

Best news I've had all day, been waiting years to get that sorted. Should make the Pattaya to Hua Hin run a lot easier.

[Thaising]

Good news, almost a complete inter-link road, cutting our traveling time to half

from eastern and southern road.

[p_brownstone]

It's also a very spectacular engineering feat, and there must be some wonderful views from the bridges.

Patrick

[leisurely]

I can't wait. I was remarking only last week that I didn't think it would be finished in the next two years. Just goes to show how wrong I can be. Delighted with the idea of avoiding the expressway when going to Hua Hin.