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Suvarnabhumi » Flood dyke sinking, in need of repair

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

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The earthen dyke preventing water from overflowing into Suvarnabhumi airport urgently needs improvement as it has subsided to a critical point, an airport construction engineer said yesterday.

Surajit Surapolchai, the expert at Airports of Thailand supervising construction at the airport, said the dyke had subsided by nearly one metre, from 3.5m high to about 2.5m, leaving Suvarnabhumi vulnerable to flooding.

Last year, the flood level outside the airport rise to about 2.20m.

“Since the dyke was built, it has subsided to a point that is now critical. It’s the time for us to pile the earth up to increase the height of the dyke,” said Mr Surajit.

Building the dyke, which is about 23.5 kilometres long, began in 1997 and was completed in 1999. It is crucial to flood prevention as the airport is at sea level.

Mr Surajit said the flood prevention measures the dyke, some canals to drain water out, plus two sluice gates were designed to handle a major flood if in their original form and in full operation.

AOT has asked the Royal Irrigation Department to check the impact of external factors such as ground water levels in the area surrounding the airport, he said.

Construction experts suspected that ground water from outside could seep through the soil and increase the ground water level inside the airport, which was very close to the soil surface. This could weaken the airport’s pavement.

RID chief Samart Chokkanapitark said the water handling system inside and outside the airport works in unison even though it is managed by different agencies, AOT and the department.

The department was improving over 20 existing canals around the airport, including two major canals next to Suvarnabhumi, to help drain water from the airport.

It also planned to build a new canal over 10km long, which would channel the combined volume of water from the airport and surrounding areas to the Gulf.

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thira Sutabutra yesterday inspected the department’s work and the AOT’s flood prevention system. He was satisfied with the efforts to improve flood prevention but could not guarantee the area would not again be under threat of flooding. Weather and human influence were factors to take into consideration, he said.

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