Drainage Canal for Suvarnabhumi Airport โครงการระบายน้ำบริเวณสนามบินสุวรรณภูมิ

[Richard Barrow]

โครงการระบายน้ำบริเวณสนามบินสุวรรณภูมิ

I went out this afternoon to check up on the progress of the new irrigation canal between the Gulf of Thailand and Suvarnabhumi Airport. Click here for a map marking these locations. This first picture is the "aqueduct" crossing Sukhumwit Road.



This next one is showing a the slope on the southern side of the road leading towards the sea.



This is the flume leading towards the Gulf of Thailand.



This is the northern end of the aqueduct. There is a pumping station here that will pump the water from the canal up the slope and onto the aqueduct.



This is another view showing the pump station and the aqueduct beyond.



This is the drainage canal on the northern side of the road that leads to the airport about 16 kms away. The canal is about 40 meters wide and 10.5 kms long. It goes as far as Samrong Canal.



This is another bridge construction directly north which I took on Theparak Road. This one is clearly an overpass bridge for vehicles and is not an aqueduct. The airport is North-North-West of here. According to the Thai newspapers, there will be a highway built on both sides of the drainage canal linking Bang Na-Trad Highway and Sukhumwit in the South. This bridge will take the traffic over Theparak Road.

I will post updates here as and when I find out more information.

---------------------------------------------------
Samut Prakan Online News - www.Paknam.com

[Richard Barrow]

I have done some further research and now realize that this is a drainage canal in order to stop the flooding at the airport. As some of you may know, the airport is built on Cobra Swamp so is prone to flooding. The local person who told me that it was a cargo link was obviously wrong. The building pictured above with the green roof is probably then a pumping station. There will then be heavy duty pipes going over the road to pump the water out into the Gulf of Thailand. There are a number of pumping stations along this road but nothing of this scale. I will take some pictures of these places later to share with you.

Here is a video and news (in Thai) from Nation Channel.

http://76.nationchannel.com/playvideo.php?id=14877

And a report in English of an inspection by the Minister of Agricultural Minister in 2008:

Drainage system project inspected by Agricultural minister

Today, Minister of Agricultural and Cooperatives, accompanied by his officials, inspect the construction of drainage project located nearby Suvarnabhumi airport compounds.

Mr. Somsak Prissanananthakul, Agricultural and Cooperatives minister together with Mr. Banharn Silapaarcha, Chairman of the Committees overseeing the follow-ups on projects under the Royal Initiatives. Government officials inspected the progress on the drainage project construction situated nearby Suvarnabhumi airport, Samut Prakarn province. The group was welcomed by Mr. Teera Wongsamoot, Director-General of the Irrigation department and Mr. Kwanchai Wongnitikorn, Samut Prakarn governor.

The drainage project is one of the biggest projects under the Irrigation department’s supervision. The construction was proceeded in 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2010, a total of 6 years to be finalized. The budget allocated on the construction is nearly 11 billion baht. Currently, 66.34 percent of the construction has been completed, which is 6.35 percent faster than what has been initially expected.

The drainage project consists of 2 main elements, one of which is the new water-distribution canal excavation that is 36 meters wide, 3.36 meters deep and 11 kilometers long. The canal is expected to be able to drain water nearby the airport out to the ocean at 8.64 million square cubic a meter. Another element is the construction of 2-lane roads over the existing water-distribution canals which will be expanded into 4-lane roads in the future. The construction is projected to help ease the congestion problem at the airport and areas surrounding the southern part of Samut Prakarn province.

[Richard Barrow]

I have now added more explanation of these pictures here:

http://www.paknam.com/latest-news/dr...-airport-.html

There is an interesting article by Sumet Jumsai which explains that the area around the airport is a natural watershed for Bangkok. The waters from the north of Thailand start to arrive in Bangkok by about September. Most of this drains off into Cobra Swamp. However, as this is below sea level, the water remains here until the sea level subsides around December. The building of the airport and other infrastructure, including highways, has impeded the flow of the flood waters to the sea. The drainage canal has to pump the water from this area down the new canal and out into the sea. The project is expected to cost 11 billion baht and should be finished by 2010. There is no estimate on how much it will cost to power these pumping stations in order to shift the water.

http://library.pcd.go.th/Multimedia/...49/8/28/10.pdf

[ManitO]

I love your article regarding the Canal.

The Canal looks very ugly; they should have done something to spruce it up and render it unobtrusively by better design and architecture.

Do you have any idea how much it cost them to build this montrosity which may not work in the long run, anyway?

Regards,

ManitO

[Richard Barrow]

If you scroll up a bit you will see I said it will cost an estimated 11 billion baht to build.

[Sparky]

It looks like a very advanced technical project and definitely well needed but [sorry ] I wish money could also be spent on new drainage systems elsewhere around the general Bangkok area and beyond.

I left work in Khlong Toey just after midnight and it had been raining hard for a few hours. Large stretches of At Narong Road and most of the Sukhumvit end of Rama 4 were under so much water I thought my car was going to pack up. Some vehicles just gave out and blocked the road. I chose the long way home because the backstreet, I think it's called Paknam Rot Fai Road, is so bad I thought that would be even worse than what I experienced on Rama 4.

[Richard Barrow]

Google Earth have now done an update to their satellite images and you can now clearly see the drainage canal that goes from the airport to the Gulf of Thailand. They have made some good progress since I took these pictures at the top of this thread. I will do an update soon.

www.paknam.com/latest-news/drainage-canal-for-suvarnabhumi-airport-.html



This shows the northern end of the canal. At the bottom of the picture it crosses Theparak Road and at the top, under the cloud, it reaches Bang Na-Trad Highway.



This shows the southern end of the canal. The road at the bottom is Sukhumwit Road along the coast. You can clearly see that they are building a highway on both sides of the canal.



This is the same shot from 2004.



This is a close-up of the pumping station and the aqueduct over Sukhumwit Road.



This is the same shot from 2004.

----------------------------------------------------------
Explore Samut Prakan

[Mozzbie47]

Very interesting Richard, looking forward to photo's when it's under way,eerr, should I say over way, it should be spectacular. No doubt you will be there with your camera when they turn it on, I sure would like to. Has anyone thought about selling viewing tickets.

[Richard Barrow]

Hopefully I will be able to go if they have a ceremony for the opening. I passed the pump station the other day and it looked completed from the outside.

[Richard Barrow]

Today we attended a meeting about the drainage canal for Suvarnabhumi Airport. The following are some pictures to show you the progress so far.



This is the pump station which sends the water up and over Sukhumwit Road and out into the Gulf of Thailand.



A lot of power will be needed for this.



This is the pumping station from the north with the canal heading towards the airport behind me.



This is now looking the other way. We are up on top of the aqueduct.



This is the canal with a new two lane highway on either side. It goes over Theparak road and ends at Bang Na - Trad Highway.



This is looking down to the pumping station.



This is inside the pumping station.

-----------------------------------
Samut Prakan Online News