Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), the builder of the underground train infrastructure, have dumped about 50,000 sandbags into the sinkhole on Samsen road, to stabilise the surrounding substrate. Water leakage into the sinkhole from ruptured mains has been fixed.
Gardphajon Udomdhammabhakdi, MRTA governor, offered an assurance today that they will resolve the sinkhole problem as quickly as possible, so normal traffic flow can be restored.
At a press conference this morning, he said officials at the scene had detected water seeping from the ground at about 5.30am on Wednesday and immediately alerted the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority to the possibility of a ruptured main. He said the situation then deteriorated rapidly and the road subsided into the large, deep sinkhole below.
He explained that substrate (clay and soil) had flowed into the site of the underground train station project at the Vajira Hospital, where two tunnels converge, one at a depth of 15 metres and the other at 20 metres.
With a lot of mud still inside the underground station, making it impossible for officials to check the area thoroughly, Gardphajon said the priority must be to stop substrate movement and to stabilise it.
The governor noted that the MRTA has been undertaking these underground train projects for about a decade and is well equipped with expertise, professionalism and technology adding, though, that this is the first major incident encountered by the company.
After successfully stabilising the surrounding clay and soil, he said the next step is to repair the tunnels and the underground station, adding that the MRTA and agencies concerned will assess the safety of affected buildings as well, such as the Samsen police station.
Meanwhile, a representative of a contractor said that he expects traffic on Samsen Road and surrounding areas to return to normal in the next two weeks.
City officials have also discovered that the Samsen Road surface, in front of the Boon Rawd Brewery, about two kilometres from the Vajira Hospital sinkhole, is bulging and water is surfacing, raising concerns that the road there may collapse as well.
Officials blocked the spot with traffic cones today, as a precaution.
