Here's an idea: how about an aqueduct over the Skytrain!
Re: 'Tunnel under the Chao Phraya is worth considering,' Letters, January 2.
Guy Baker’s suggestion for a tunnel under the Chao Phraya River to prevent flooding is an excellent idea. Here’s another one to supplement it – an aqueduct over the Skytrain.
Aqueducts have fallen out of fashion since the days of the ancient Romans, but consider the advantages. The sturdy foundations of the Skytrain are already in place, so we won’t have to waste money building new foundations. The aqueduct is bound to become a tourist attraction. Unlike a floodway on the ground, it will not disrupt life in residential neighbourhoods. (How would you like to have a floodway running through your living room?)
Of course there will be problems, such as how to funnel rampaging floodwaters into the northern terminus at Mor Chit, how to prevent surges from slopping water over the sides and drowning all those Skytrain passengers below, how to get the water to the sea from the current Skytrain terminus at Bearing. But these can all be finessed through skilled engineering and by imposing the rigorous safety and construction standards for which Thailand is famed.
To heighten the aesthetic ambience, little school children will be invited to paint colourful pictures and graffiti on the sides. Getting them up there on ropes and scaffolding will pose a challenge, but that will add to the excitement. (Don’t fall off or spill the paint, kids!)
It will also provide entertainment for those watching from below, as well as unparalleled photo opportunities for delighted tourists. Childish portraits of traditional icons of Thai culture like Hello Kitty, Ultraman and Doraemon smiling into the smog from the sides of our high-flying aqueduct will brighten the skyline and advertise to one and all that this is, indeed, Thailand.
Finally, the Bangkok Aqueduct and Transportation System (BATS) will add a much-needed vowel to the current unpronounceable acronym BTS. I know that critics will jeer that BATS are what I’ve got in my belfry, but that is merely the jealous carping of petty minds.
Horace Beasley
Bangkok
