Cobra Swamp is reclaiming Bangkok's showpiece airport

[travelerjim]

Thaivisa.com has issued several press reports about the new Bangkok airport....

"Cobra Swamp is reclaiming Bangkok's showpiece airport"

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php ... pic=104099 (http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=104099) .

... the leaning tower of Pisa (this could be the leaning airport of Suvarnabhumi, perhaps?)

[Smiles]

Andrew Drummond!!! :cheers:

Hard not to agree with the jist of the article though .... whether the airport actually disappears into the muck or not.
The original decision to build the airport on a fetid, roiling, moving swamp is the culprit here, and that call was made years before Thaksin popped his head up, against much good advice apparently.

A very sad and probably unnecessary mess. Much face lost, and much treasure down the spout, paid for on the backs of Thai folks, most of whom can hardly afford it.

Cheers ...

Andrew Drummond!!! :cheers:

Hard not to agree with the jist of the article though .... whether the airport actually disappears into the muck or not.
The original decision to build the airport on a fetid, roiling, moving swamp is the culprit here, and that call was made years before Thaksin popped his head up, against much good advice apparently.

A very sad and probably unnecessary mess. Much face lost, and much treasure down the spout, paid for on the backs of Thai folks, most of whom can hardly afford it.

Cheers ...

It must have been relatives of Thaksin then lol - according to the boards hes to blame for everything! he probably sunk the Titanic too!

This is a Thai swamp. Thais understand how swamps in Thailand behave far, far better than some foreigner who knows how swamps elsewhere behave. Thai swamps are special because they are in Thailand, and only Thais understand them fully. If you haven't grasped that that is the basic attitude of the Thais about anything you care to name then you just don't understand the Thai mentality. It's the same mentality behind Thai Rak Thai (although literally Thais Love Thais but better translated as Thailand for the Thais), around the King's expressions of Thai democracy being something so special and unique it is embodied in him rather than the popular will of the people - everything about Thailand is special. Don't you get that, farang?

[bigben]

Dear Khun Somchai,

No matter how much money and prayers are wasted on the new airport runways, they are going to continue to sink because of the way they were built.

Nature always wins in the long run.

So what to do?

Since they (Thai folks and government) wonтАЩt move the airport, the only suggestion I have is to make it a тАжтАж.Drum roll pleaseтАжтАжтАжтАжтАж

My suggestion is to look into the feasibility of building the runway portion of the airport on platoons. This would solve the sinking aspect and using Mother NatureтАЩs natural swamp would keep the environmental wackos happy.

Building the runways on big platoons. What a concept huh?

Yes Virginia, there are at least two other airports under construction using this тАЬfloating concept and Googling тАЬfloating airportsтАЭ you will discover Japan has one up and running----or is that up and floating?

http://www.mlit.go.jp/english/maritime/mega_float.html

[andrewcraig]

Dear, what makes an airport great. What does? Ease of access. Fairly priced food and beverages. Attractive environment.

Efficiency.

Suvarnabhumi ranks high in all of them. The immigration cops can sweat through their tighty whities for all I care.

I would have thought safety of the landing and take off areas would have highest priority unless you were a trader or

airport designer. Who cares about fatalities as long as the till is rattling

bigben: Do you mean "pontoons"?

The Kansai International Airport is on a jack-support system and twice a year they adjust the jacks to make sure the airport is at the proper level. Wonder if that would work in a Thai swamp? (nod to Homintern's post to Smiles <g>)

Well, what they SHOULD have done, and will have to do about the situation eventually (which will be painfully expensive) are immaterial to what they urgently need to do, all of a sudden, to minimize the chance of a disaster. Thailand can't afford to have one runway shut down at Suvarnabhum, the way things are now, at least. A period of long and expensive repairs shutting down one runway IS a strong possibility in the near future. They need to get some mix of foreign and domestic going and paid for at Don Maung, fast. and probably best they open the two up to competition.

[cottmann]

bigben: Do you mean "pontoons"?

The Kansai International Airport is on a jack-support system and twice a year they adjust the jacks to make sure the airport is at the proper level. Wonder if that would work in a Thai swamp? (nod to Homintern's post to Smiles <g>)

Actually, the jacks are there to kept the buildings level, not to compensate for the fact that the Kansai airport is (or was) sinking at the rate of about 30 cms (or one foot) a year - six times faster than expected. I believe that at the moment both the runways and the buildings are quite stable and the rate of sinking has declined.

Chubu Airport (or Centrair) in Nagoya is also built on an 580-hectare artificial island in Ise Bay, but the settling of the soil is expected to result in only a few centimeters of sinking.