Motorists are advised to avoid the Kesa Komon Bridge, in Bangkok’s Dusit district, after a section of the Nakhon Chaisri Road on the approach to the bridge caved in Sunday night, leaving a gaping hole about three metres deep, 10 metres long and five metres wide.
Police have closed the roads near the bridge to all traffic after the road caved in and city officials are installing large metal sheets to cover the hole, pending repairs.
Eyewitnesses said that, at about 7pm Sunday night, they saw cracks on the road and, at about 9pm, the road caved in.
Nipon Sriruang, chief of the canal section at the Drainage and Sewerage Department of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, said that the point where the road caved in is adjacent to the construction of a small dam project in the Prem Prachakorn Canal.
He explained that the collapse is being attributed to a break in a water main underneath the bridge, adding that the bridge and Nakhon Chaisri Road will be reopened to traffic today, as soon as the temporary metal sheets are in place.
