Gulf of Thailand Bridge

[jpatokal]

I've seen lots of criticism about the Gulf of Thailand bridge project, but I haven't seen any maps, and I don't really understand a) why this is needed and b) why Thaksin is so keen on building it. Building 50 km of bridge to shave 35 km (15 min on a good expressway) off the distance by car doesn't seem very cost-effective... can somebody enlighten me?

For comparison, consider Hong Kong's Pearl River Bridge project, which will link 3 big cities, reduce HK-Macau travel time from 4.5 hours to 40 minutes and is "only" 29 km long... but is still bogged in controversy over whether it's worth it.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_River_Bridge_Project

[ConorBracken]

Comparison with the Pearl River bridge might not hold up well. The gulf of Thailand bridge will be in fairly shallow water whereas a bridge linking Hong Kong and Macau will connect two deepwater ports.

I believe that the water depth may be a key issue in the cost of such projects, and if so would explain why building a bridge over water may not be so much more expensive than expropriating land and building in urban areas.

just guessing...

[jpatokal]

My understanding is that the Pearl River estuary is actually fairly shallow (as river deltas tend to be because of the silt floating downstream), with depths <20m even at the deepest point, and this seems to back me up:

http://jmsc.hku.hk/jmsc6030/bridgest...ign/index.html

According to the link, the major design challenges will be dealing with the shifting silt, and making sure any structures can stand up to the typhoons that batter HK on a regular basis. And because the bridge will, err, bridge two large shipping ports, some kind of 'extra' bridge or tunnel is needed to let ships under it.

So does anybody have more details about the Thai bridge project?

[Pas]

There is a lot of information of this bridge project at Thai Engineering website, follow this link:
http://www.thaiengineering.com/newversion/bridge.asp

The page is in Thai although there are some pictures of the construction site from various public consultation and details of the project breakdown into three key sections.

[Pas]

rough translation/summary of key points from Thai Engineering website

Background summary of the Southern Bypass (Gulf of Thailand Bridge) project as detailed in the consultant's report..

1.Traffic

The Southern Bypass will facilitate future traffic flows to the South
At present the daily traffic volume on Petchkasem Rd between
(section between Pak Toh to Cha-am) is measured approximately 36,000 vehicles per day, traffic speed averaging 66-73 km/hour.
Assuming the level of traffic growth remain constant, by 2022 traffic on this section of Petchkasem Rd would grow to 99000 vpd, and by the year 2027, up to 125,000 vpd. Hence the average traffic speed would decreased to 65-55 kmph respectively.

2.Engineering

The Southern Bypass is a bi-directional motorway comprising 4 traffic lanes (a study is being carried out to ascertain whether this can be increased to 3 lanes per direction / 6 lane in total).
The motorway will be fully elevated, starting from Bang Yai Highway-Ban Pong (around Ban LaemBua district, Nakhon Pathom province). It cuts across Nakhon Pathom province pass Petchkasem Rd & Rama 2 before
traversing the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Sakhon province, then surface on land at Laem Pak Bia (near Ban Makham Chang area) and terminated at Cha-Am District, Petchaburi. Total route lenght is 128km.
The project will progress as follow: first phase, construction between Rama 2-Laem Pak Bia-Cha Am (total 92km) all elevated (land section 45km, approx 47km as bridge over the Gulf of Thailand).

3.Economic rationale
The Bypass will benefit the Southern region by improve accessibility through an expanded road network, accelerating economic development of the Southern region, benefiting agricultural and manufacturing sectors and promoting tourism

4.Economic cost/benefit analysis
The project is expected to yield an internal rate of return (EIRR) of 15%, Benefit/Cost ratio of 1.39, investment to break even in 13 years.

5.Environmental impact
Environmental study found that the construction (before, during construction and after completion) will have minimal impact on the forests, fishery and people's livelihood (few land resumption is expected)
and the project can be carefully manage to minimise negative environmental impacts.

[Pas]

Another website set up for the public consultation exercise:

http://www.lpbproject.com/index.htm

In this page you can see photos and video animation of the bridge project, including study of the Oresund bridge linking Denmark & Sweden:

http://www.lpbproject.com/photo_and_video.htm

[ncr]

Originally Posted by Pas

Another website set up for the public construction exercise:

http://www.lpbproject.com/index.htm

That page also has an opinion poll where 40% out of 150 people said they "strongly oppose" the project!

(strongly support: 26%
support: 15%
indifferent: 6%
unsure: 4%
oppose: 8%
strongly oppose: 40%)

... quite a polarization, eh?

[Pas]

Originally Posted by ncr

That page also has an opinion poll where 40% out of 150 people said they "strongly oppose" the project!

(strongly support: 26%
support: 15%
indifferent: 6%
unsure: 4%
oppose: 8%
strongly oppose: 40%)

... quite a polarization, eh?

Yeh it seems there's a lot of opposition to this project. I for one am not a big fan of it - just intrigue
It would be nicer if they build high-speed rail to the South.

[ncr]

Originally Posted by Pas

Yeh it seems there's a lot of opposition to this project. I for one am not a big fan of it - just intrigue
It would be nicer if they build high-speed rail to the South.

That's exactly how I - and probably the majority of people here on the forum - feel about it, Pas.

[The Enforcer!]

Call me a skeptic if you will but I think it has a lot to do with building something impressive 'for the sake of it' (cross-reference "tallest Airport Tower in the World") than practicality!

The Enforcer!

[Pas]

Yes that's it.. building for the sake of it.

[Pas]

2Bangkok website was also mentioned in the bridge project website. scroll to the bottom of this page-->

http://www.lpbproject.com/other_news_019.htm

[ncr]

Originally Posted by Pas

2Bangkok website was also mentioned in the bridge project website. scroll to the bottom of this page-->

http://www.lpbproject.com/other_news_019.htm

Well, they copied and pasted information from 2Bangkok, but at least they mentioned the source.

But why would they put these mostly critical articles on their project website? I don't quite get that.

[Pas]

yeh N.. I don't understand that either.
May be it's meant to be like a 'press release' page??

[frankga]

I am translating the Thai info from the construction project site into English for an article on this project we are doing for the Korat Post, and will make this English version available once it is completed - within a few days, hopefully, from now.
Frank G Anderson
www.thekoratpost.com
ethics@loxinfo.co.th
Korat tel. 01-8773981