Part of Rama II highway blocked to remove loose concrete slabs of flyover

The Mahachai highway police unit posted on its Facebook wall that they had learned of the dangerous part of the flyover and closed the frontage road of the Rama II highway from kilometre marker 22+500 from 2pm for removal of the four dangerous slabs.

Traffic on the frontage road would be diverted to Ekkachai Road for about 1.5 kilometres before it would be rerouted back to the Rama II frontage road.

Earlier in the day, a Facebook user posted photos of the partly damaged part of the flyover, saying it could lead to a tragic accident like the one that happened on Rama II Road, also in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district, earlier this week.

On the night of July 31, two people were killed and five injured when a five-tonne, 10-metre-long concrete beam fell off the U-turn bridge onto a car while also damaging a pickup truck. The bridge, which is under maintenance, is located in front of Vibharam Hospital in Muang district.

Pranpong Netnitkul, chief of the Samut Sakhon highway office, said the bridge with the loose slabs was the flyover at the Ekkachai-Rama II intersection in Tambon Khok Krabua.

The four slabs were part of a group of slabs holding up the main concrete beam of the bridge, he said.

He said the four pieces were apparently hit by a very high vehicle, causing parts of the concrete to fall off, revealing steel parts that were attached to the bridge.

Pranpong said the removal of the slabs would take at least three hours.