Bridge plans won’t fix traffic woes
City Hall seems to firmly believe that building four more bridges across the Chao Phraya River can help ease traffic on Bangkok streets. Fierce opposition has arisen against two of them, the 16-billion-baht Kiakkai bridge project and the 995-million-baht bridge to link Ratchawong and Tha Din Daeng roads. The negative reaction should remind both the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and the government that they need to have a rethink on these structures.
Since 2004, the BMA has come up with plans to build at least four more bridges, commissioning studies and design work for the projects. But there has been more opposition than support.
Opponents include local people, architects and scholars. They have tried in vain to tell the BMA to scrap these plans.
Most opponents have made valid points questioning the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of these plans and argue that building these bridges will not bring about much traffic alleviation but worsen commutes in adjacent areas.
On Wednesday, the Association of Siamese Architects petitioned Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who chairs a committee overseeing the Kiakkai bridge project, to not proceed with it.
In addition to the risk of it being a city eyesore — the bridge will have four to six lanes — architects and scholars also pointed out that the bridge will not ease the traffic flow of cars travelling to and from the Bang Sue area.
This Kiakkai project is planned as a road link that is part bridge and part elevated road stretching 9.5 kilometres.
It will also be connected to the Chatuchak and Saphan Khwai areas where traffic congestion is a regular nightmare for commuters.
But the project will not be connected to the city’s outer ring roads and so will not help commuters to reach their suburban destinations faster than using existing routes.
More importantly, the bridge’s narrow access and exit points will simply become bottlenecks for traffic flow. Cars coming down from the bridge to Bang Sue will end up getting stuck in traffic there while worsening traffic congestion in nearby areas.
The BMA should not come up with infrastructure projects that will further promote the use of personal cars.
Originally, this project was planned to ease travel in the Bang Sue area, once planned as Bangkok’s new transport hub. But the plan has been scaled down, so it will no longer serve this purpose.
Similarly, the bridge project that will link Ratchawong Road on the Bangkok side with Tha Din Daeng Road on the Thon Buri side will unlikely serve its traffic alleviation purpose.
Similar opposition was made at a public hearing forum last month. People living in these old town areas said they wanted the plan to be terminated.
The new 450-metre long bridge will only have two lanes for cars, with a 100mlong ramp on the Ratchawong Road side and a 120m-long ramp at the Tha Din Daeng Road end.
The other two projects — one to connect Lat Ya Road with Maha Phruttharam Road, and the other to connect Chan Road with Charoen Nakhon Road— also face opposition and doubt whether they can improve the flow of traffic.
City Hall needs to realise that these plans, initiated over a decade ago, are outdated and inefficient approaches to solving traffic congestion. With many electric rail system developments in place and more lines in the pipeline, to serve areas where the bridges are planned to be built, the BMA should rather promote the use of this means of public transport.
Bangkok has also seen several bridges crossing the Chao Phraya River. Yet we still endure traffic jams on a daily basis.
Traffic jams in the city also result from the sharp increase in the number of vehicles in the past decade. The BMA should not come up with infrastructure projects that will further promote the use of personal cars.
City Hall must be aware that its job is to serve Bangkok residents. As a result, it cannot ignore their recent opposing voices against these bridges.
Gen Prawit should pay attention to the petition he has been given over the Kiakkai bridge project. He should exercise his leadership and show that these bridges need to be scrapped.
City Hall, under the leadership of governor Aswin Kwanmuang appointed by the current regime, made the right decision in January to scrap its controversial plan to build a 2.5-billion-baht skywalk stretching across the Chao Phraya River between Siriraj Hospital and Tha Phrachan pier.
The BMA should consider making a similar decision for the bridge plans. It needs to come to terms with the reality that these new bridges will not cure traffic woes.