On Tuesday morning, the well-known Thai – Belgian bridge on the Rama IV Road was damaged by fire. The repair will take at least a month. This is a disaster for the already congested roads in the capital.
The Thai-Belgian bridge was once donated by the Belgians, see more information here: www.thailandblog.nl/background/de-belgische-bridge-troubled-roads/
The fire started in the waste bins under the flyover. The steel structure of the bridge was destroyed in the fire. Ten of the steel beams are damaged. They will be replaced by beams from the demolished flyovers at the Ratchayothin and Kasetsart intersection.
The duration of the repair work is estimated at 45 days, yet Governor Aswin of Bangkok wants the bridge to be ready again in a month. Together with the police, the municipality is taking measures to regulate traffic as well as possible on both Rama IV Road and surrounding roads.
The garbage barrels belonged to the Pathumwan District Office which stores garbage there. That is now removed. Other flyovers are now also inspected for waste and combustible material. Police do not suspect arson.
Source: Bangkok Post
There are in Bangkok if they want no congested roads at all. Thais just love to sit in their air-conditioned car. If tomorrow everyone just crawls on their scooter, which is ideal in a tropical country, there will be plenty of room. But yes, rather 3 hours in traffic with a nice expensive car is of course much better than driving a (cheap) scooter….