Govt urged to build B200bn flood tunnel
Published: 1/12/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
The Thailand Underground and Tunnelling Group has suggested the government invest around 200 billion baht to build a 100km-long tunnel under the eastern section of the outer ring road to prevent future flooding in and around the capital.
Suchatvee Suwansawat, TUTG chairman, yesterday said the proposed tunnel should be built from Bang Pa-in in Ayutthaya to Samut Prakan province.
The project, which could be completed in two years, will help drain water in Lum Luk Ka district of Pathum Thani to the Gulf of Thailand.
The tunnel would be designed as a double-deck underground structure, called a multi-service flood tunnel system, and would also be equipped with hydropower generators for power production, Assoc Prof Suchatvee said.
The upper deck would be used as a road under normal conditions when there were no floods or during minor and moderate flooding.
The lower deck would be used as a flood drain during normal situations or during minor or moderate flooding.
During major floods, the upper deck would be closed to traffic and turned into a floodway to help speed up the drainage of run-off.
Assoc Prof Suchatvee said a similar system should also be considered for the western part of Bangkok.
Large tunnels would be practical, more effective and so the best solution to prevent major flooding over the long run.
Prasong Tarachai, former president of the Engineering Institute of Thailand said the underground flood prevention tunnel system should be built from Nakhon Sawan.
He also suggested integrating 20 state agencies involved in the water management system and creating a more accurate water information system.
“City planning should be revised to include floodways,” he said. “Regulations should be drawn up to specify areas which are reserved as floodways. The floodwater normally flows through these areas for only three months each year, between October and December.
“The people living in the floodways should be properly compensated for allowing water to flow through their land. This should include their expenses in having to modify or lift their homes to avoid possible damage from the water.”
The TUTG will hold the 64-nation World Tunnel Congress 2012 and its 38th General Assembly General Assembly of International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association in Bangkok between May 18 and May 23,wire mesh product, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center under the theme “Tunnelling and Underground Space for Global Society”.
HESCO Bastion / Military Barriers / Hesco Bastions Concertainer
Engineered fortification systems
Information
The QIAOSHI’s Military Barriers or Hesco Bastions is a modern gabion used for flood control and military fortification. It is made of a collapsible metal wire mesh container and heavy duty fabric liner, and used as a temporary to semi-permanent dike or barrier against blast or small-arms. One of the less heralded life- and labor-saving devices of war, it is used on nearly every United States Military base in Iraq as well as on NATO bases in Afghanistan.
Originally designed for use on beaches and marshes for erosion and flood control, the Hesco Bastion quickly became a popular security device in the 1990s.
Assembly
Assembling the Hesco Bastion entails unfolding it and (if available) using a front end loader to fill it with sand, dirt or gravel. The placement of the barrier is generally very similar to the placement of a sandbag barrier or earth berm except that room must generally be allowed for the equipment used to fill the barrier. The main advantage of Military Barrier,annealed wire, strongly contributing to their popularity with troops and flood fighters, is the quick and easy setup. Previously, people had to fill sandbags, a slow undertaking, with one worker filling about 20 sandbags per hour. Workers using Military Barrier and a front end loader can do ten times the work of those using sandbags.
The Hesco Barrier come in a variety of sizes. Most of the barriers can also be stacked, and they are shipped collapsed in compact sets. Example dimensions of typical configurations are 46″ x 36″ x 32 (1.4m x 1.1m x 9.8m) to 7 x 5 x 100 (2.1m x 1.5m x 30m).
A new system of Hesco Bastion developed specially for military use is deployed from a container, which is dragged along the line of ground where the barrier is to be formed, unfolding up to several hundred meters of barrier in minutes, ready for filling with soil by a backhoe.
Protection
Filled with sand, 60 centimetres (24 inches) of barrier thickness will stop rifle bullets and shell fragments. It takes 1.5 metres (five feet) of thickness to prevent penetration by a rocket propelled grenade round. Approximately 1.2 metres (four feet) of thickness provides protection against most car bombs.
Specification
HESCO Bastion Concertainer is a straight forward product that is easily and rapidly constructed to create effective and economical protective structures. Originally designed to replace conventional field fortification materials such as sandbags, HESCO units were first used operationally by the British Army in the 1991 Gulf War. HESCO is now in service with many major military organisations including the UK MoD, ADF and the US Military and has become a benchmark in force protection throughout the world.
Whether used to define boundaries or as a preventative barrier, HESCO units have been employed to safeguard personnel, vehicles, equipment, facilities and other vulnerable target areas in a variety of military, peacekeeping, humanitarian and civilian operations. HESCO units have also been extensively used in civil applications in flood management, erosion control and slope stability applications.
Assembling HESCO
Features
HESCO walls can be built to any required length and to any height. The unique joining system allows the user great flexibility in configurations and requirements. One of the key advantages of the system is that any readily available infill material can be utilised. Sand, rubble, rocks,Thailand’s Water Management to Be Improved to Fight Flooding Situation-Hesco Bastion, soil, concrete and even snow have been successfully used.
Perimeter Wall
Rapid construction is another key feature of the product. A typical wall of HESCO Concertainer units equivalent to approximately 1500 sandbags, can be erected and filled by two men and a single common loader in less than twenty minutes. An equivalent wall constructed of sandbags would take 10 men 7 hours to build.
Filling HESCO
The flat-pack design of HESCO Concertainer units allows for extremely efficient storage and transportation. Folded units can be packaged on standard timber skids or pallets, in containers or as bulk cargo. Over 500m of Mil 1 units can be transported in a single 20ft ISO container.
Product Range
HESCO units are manufactured from welded mesh, either 8 gauge (4mm) or 6 gauge (5mm) and coated using the Galfan process. Each units is lined with ISO Standard 200g/m 2 non-woven polypropylene Geotextile.
The unique, patented design of HESCO units are available in nine different sizes, and in two colours (Sand or Green)] to suit different environments.
HESCO units have achieved an impressive service record and nations across the world have been quick to recognise its unparalleled capabiity to protect personnel, facilities and equipment against attack.
Typical uses include:
Perimeter, security and defence walls
Equipment revetments
Ammunition compounds
Personnel and material bunkers
Observation points
Access control barriers
Blast mitigation and containment
Base command centres
Anti-ram vehicle barriers
Defensive firing positions
Guard posts
Search areas
Checkpoints
Existing structure protection
Special Products
In addition to the range of HESCO defence wall systems,Joint Press Conference of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra with Mr.Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-G-kanaam, HESCO Bastion have also designed and developed products for specific applications, such as Bunkers, Sangars and UV Protection.
Designed to meet a number of requirements identified by operational users, a variety of off the shelf sets have been configured which include HESCO components and the required additional components tailored to create protective structures quickly and efficiently.
Some examples include:
HAB (HESCO Accommodation Bunker)
The HAB has been developed as a result of the ever-increasing threat to deployed personnel from indirect fire weapons.
The bunker is designed to provide safe living accommodation for up to 8 persons giving each person a space of around 2m square. There is up to 2.16m of headroom inside the bunker.
The HAB will provide protection from weapons systems up to and including large mortar rounds. It has side walls formed from Mil 6 HESCO units and a specifically engineered roof structure to combat the effects of indirect fire weapons.
HAB (HESCO Accommodation Bunker)
Guard Post/Sangar
The components of this set provide a small emplacement with two-foot thick walls and 18″ (5.48m) of overhead cover. Embrasure (firing/observation point) forms are included in the set as are roof joists and roofing material.
The interior space is four foot by six foot, with 6’6″ (1.98m) of headroom. The complete set is delivered on a single pallet weighing 826lb (375kg). Detailed instructions for the assembly of the guard post are supplied.
Two-Man Guard Post/Sanger Package
To construct a 2 man Sanger kit will take approx 20m³ of fill material.
Guard Post /Sangar
Containerised Bunker Kit
A containerised kit has been developed which offers an effective means of transporting all the components required to construct a bunker. The ISO container has a fully opening side, facilitating rapid deployment of all components. The container also comes complete with a pre-fabricated personnel door and a rear escape hatch,Thailand’s Thongchai in floods appeal-Hesco Bastion,tennis fence, both of which can be opened from inside.
Containerised Bunker Kit