SUVARNABHUMI

Rescue plan for airport

Expert warned 15 years ago building on a swamp was trouble

A top architect has suggested ways to save the Bt150-billion Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Dr Sumet Jumsai said the increasingly serious runway cracks had to be resolved.

"We have to make Suvarnabhumi work because it is already there.

"For the runways, repairs to the cracks must continue, but Airports of Thailand should sheet-pile both sides of the runways along their entire length.

"This should lessen the subsoil shift and reduce cracks on the apron's surface," he said.

"In the long run it may be necessary to pile all the aprons. The new runway east of the existing polder [a polder is a dyked area], slated for expansion, might be built sooner rather than later.

"In this respect the polder must not be expanded, and the new runway must not be land-filled. Instead the runway should be built above flood level on piers in order to allow flood water to pass under it," Sumet said.

"In this way it will not impede water flow or further reduce the flood-retention capacity of Nong Ngu Hao swamp [on which the airport is built]."

"There is nothing new in this. You can draw a lesson from the traditional Thai house on stilts standing comfortably in watery terrain. Traditional Thai architecture is amphibious and in harmony with nature."

Sumet, who opposed building the airport on the site because of unfavourable subsoil conditions, suggested air traffic at the four-month-old Suvarnabhumi Airport should then shift to the newly piled runway to allow the existing aprons to be piled.

Alternatively, the old Don Muang airport north of Bangkok could be recommissioned to accept flights while repairs are carried out.

Sumet said his measures would not resolve flooding outside the polder, since the water-retention capacity of the swamp had been severely compromised by the airport.

Sumet, one of Thailand's top architects, with many buildings in Bangkok, the provinces and neighbouring countries, recalled how 15 years ago he had fought against the location of an airport at Nong Ngu Hao on the grounds it went against nature.

"Nature is now taking its toll in this swamp, and I feel everyone has got it wrong in the ongoing investigation. The bottom line is that with or without corruption - and every government in the design and construction phases is implicated - the runways and any structure not on piles will be subject to differential settlement and cracks," he said.

"All you have to do is to look at the Bang Na-Trat Highway. After so many years and multiple layers of compressed sub-base, the road still sinks," he said.

The Nation Thailand
Sunday January 28, 2007