Roads of the world - Elevated highways in Bangkok

Village in the plum grove—this is the literal meaning of the name Bangkok. Today, the “village” has a population of six and a half million. Traffic jams were a permanent condition in Bangkok until the city reacted in the 90s— introducing elevated toll roads which brought significant improvement. Raised on stilts, they carry traffic over the chronically-congested city center. Bilfinger Berger built a total of 60 kilometers of this raised roadway. Because the subsoil in Bangkok consists of soft clay and loam, the foundations reach down to a depth of some forty meters. The superstructure is made up of prestressing segments that were cast outside the city, delivered in flat bed trucks at night when the traffic eased and positioned between the concrete stilts by steel tendons. Each individual segment weighs in at around 75 tons. City authorities have realized that simply building new roads is not enough to overcome mobility problems, however. Since 1999, the “Skytrain”—also on stilts—has hovered over the chaos below, and in 2004 the first metro train line went into operation. Bilfinger Berger was involved here, too.

(Text: Bernd Hauser, Photo: Alistair Michael Thomas)