Eighth flood tunnel construction to save Bangkok from flooding making progress

[webfact]

Eighth flood tunnel construction to save Bangkok from flooding making progress



BANGKOK: -- The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is now constructing its eighth flood tunnel with aim to ease flooding in the capital’s six major areas. It has planned to build four other flood tunnels which will resolve flooding in the capital sustainably.

The assurance of resolving flood problem in Bangkok on a sustainable basis was given by Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra while he led a tour of media representatives to inspect the site of the eighth flood tunnel today.

The site is in the middle of the Bang Sue canal and now has been turned into a massive construction site, in which in the near future, the location would be modified into a flood water intake structure with the capacity to pump water at a rate of 30 cubic metres per second.

The flood tunnel will be built 30 metres under the Bang Sue canal.

According to the governor, the Bang Sue tunnel is five metres wide, and now 700 metres of the total length have already been bored. The tunnel is expected to be completed by 2016.

Boring the tunnel started since the New Year, and 700 metres or around 28 percent have been completed from the total length of around 6.4 kilometres.

A day work can get 18 metres in length.

The construction has started in the middle of the canal, from Kampaeng Phet Road leading to the Kiak Kai intersection and this section of the tunnel would be completed first, before the workers would start to work backward toward Ratchada road.

BMA has allocated a budget of almost 2.5 billion baht for the construction and is expecting to complete the whole tunnel within 1,080 days, just in time of the rainy season in September next year.

The Bang Sue tunnel will serve as a receiver for excess water from the canals starting from the Lad Prao canal in Ratchada Pisek area, down to the water bypass which is 30 metres deep from the ground, along the Bang Sue canal and through Vibhavadi Rangsit Road to Paholyothin, Samsen, before pumping out the excess water into Chao Phraya river.

The Bang Sue tunnel will have the same pumping capacity as the Rama 9 tunnel and will be responsible to take in the excess water from the northern part of Bangkok.

Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhan Paribatra said the tunnel will drain water from the areas that are usually hit by flooding every year, particularly in Ratchada area, Ladprao, and Chatuchak, and pump out excess water straight into the Chao Phraya river.

Bangkok already has 7 giant tunnels and Bang Sue tunnel is its eighth .

The BMA has planned to further construct four more giant tunnels which will ensure that flooding in the capital will be resolved sustainably.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/eighth-flood-tunnel-construction-to-save-bangkok-from-flooding-making-progress

-- Thai PBS 2015-03-10

[BSJ]

Pumping water into a river already carrying much more water than usual doesn't seem like a good idea. Wouldn't it be better to pump the water to an area which has a holding pond and release the water gradually in the dry season....or better still use the water for irrigation?

[taff33]

Pumping water into a river already carrying much more water than usual doesn't seem like a good idea. Wouldn't it be better to pump the water to an area which has a holding pond and release the water gradually in the dry season....or better still use the water for irrigation?

I think that is a little bit to easy to do and requires a lot of thinking not something that is used a lot in Thailand.

[Borzandy]

Another way to wast money. Only the constructor is happy...

[Tchooptip]

"and 700 metres or around 28 percent have been completed from the total length of around 6.4 kilometres" ???

OK ...700 28% of 6400

...but that's not enough

"and is expecting to complete the whole tunnel within 1,080 days, just in time of the rainy season in September next year.

better and better

[maidee]

next, why not a 1000 km tunnel from the dams directly to the sea ?

[duckmandon]

Maybe they should have a dual use for the tunnels as they do in Kuala Lumphur. They use the tunnels for motor vehicles & they shut them down before flooding occurs then use them for flood mitigation. once flooding is finished they reopen the cleaned up tunnels for traffic use again. Not rocket science.

[seajae]

so instead of Bangkok flooding the will,pump the water into the river and flood everything downstream a lot worse. really top thinking there

[FangFerang]

The north floods yearly, Bangkok flooded twice. Watch where the money does not go.....

[KhnomKhnom]

Is that the same tunnel that will also carry the SkyTrain ????

[mango66]

so instead of Bangkok flooding the will,pump the water into the river and flood everything downstream a lot worse. really top thinking there

why not ?

I need my home in Lat Phrao dry ! 555

[mango66]

The north floods yearly, Bangkok flooded twice. Watch where the money does not go.....

if its flooded yearly you have to make a fish pond there !!

[Rob8891]

It's a very cunning plan....hide the water underground, then pump it into the river where it's already a bit wet. I can't see any flaw in this, as long as they have plenty of moored boats on hand to propel the water downstream......

[angiolo]

Too much in the rainy season,not enough in the summer... Hey cant that be balanced out somehow

[Thian]

So they only protect the parts in the centre of bangkok? They do nothing to deepen the chao praya or make a canal around bangkok?

[The Deerhunter]

I notice all the usual cynical "experts on everything" having their say and educating us all with their great knowledge of hydrodynamics. I am however, hoping and assuming that all this money was spent with some planning and expectation that the result would ease flooding. Finding somewhere to "hold" all the water as suggested by one poster, was what they did a couple of years ago when they allowed land North of BKK to flood to keep BKK from flooding. That was not popular, i.e. the "holding the water somewhere" did not meet with the approval of the people who live where it was being held. So now they are trying to push the water through bypass tunnels to get it out of the system quicker. Seems logical to me. Lets see if it works.

However the journo's maths is wonky. 700 meters is NOT 28% of 6.4km. More like 10.9%.

Edited March 10, 2015 by The Deerhunter

[phil2407]

Why pump flood water into a river that is nearly flooding from rain already - are there no dams even underground storage areas that they can pump / supply into if needed - Thailand - drought then flood same always - at least with dams you can control water flow to some extent

[Basil B]

"and 700 metres or around 28 percent have been completed from the total length of around 6.4 kilometres" ???

OK ...700 28% of 6400

...but that's not enough

"and is expecting to complete the whole tunnel within 1,080 days, just in time of the rainy season in September next year.

better and better

I do not think the Commander in Chief of the RTAF is going to be to happy when he finds out this tunnel is going to finish in the middle of his Dhupatemiya golf course...

[CapeThai]

Here we go again... This time TV's very own Civil Engineering and Water Works teams knowing a lot better than people who's been actively dealing with flooding waterways their whole life's....

[Basil B]

Here we go again... This time TV's very own Civil Engineering and Water Works teams knowing a lot better than people who's been actively dealing with flooding waterways their whole life's....

It is frightening when maths is not their better subject...