Sinkhole appears at Pathumwan Intersection
Play
A sinkhole measuring 60 centimetres across and one metre in depth appeared at Bangkok's Pathumwan Intersection near the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre Wednesday morning.
City workers rushed to cordon off the area for inspection, worsening the already bad traffic congestion.
Bangkok Deputy Governor Theerachon Manomaipibul and drainage, sewerage and public works department officials inspected the site, which is on Phayathai Road between the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and Siam Discovery Centre.
The inspection found that the soil and sand under the road surface had seeped into a large drainage pipe, leaving a void, and the constant weight of vehicles passing by resulted in the sinkhole. It was estimated that 4 to 5 more spots in the area might be prone to subsidence as they were along the drainage pipeline, Theerachon said.
The officials would scan the area for more voids while the sinkhole was repaired, he added.
As a long-term solution to the problem, Theerachon also instructed the city's 50 district offices to examine their roads, especially old and often-repaired thoroughfares. Public works officials should be called for further inspections if any voids were found beneath the roads and repairs should be undertaken before subsidence occurs.
Theerachon said the city officials were currently inspecting 21 risky roads, 12 tunnels and 42 bridges, as a precaution.
The Phayathai Road sinkhole was the fourth road subsidence in less than four weeks. The first one, a five-metre-wide and one-metre-deep sinkhole occurred in the middle of Rama IV near the Thai-Belgium Bridge intersection, occurred last month. Earlier this month, a section of footpath along Rama III Road caved in, causing a hole three metres long and five metres deep and then another 50cm-wide sinkhole occurred on Charoen Krung Road.
