BRIDGING TIMES AND CITIES
The story of the Thai-Belgian Bridge on its 30th anniversary
On a recent visit to Bangkok, Baron Patrick Nothomb recalled the tremors of anxiety when the Thai-Belgian bridge was about to be assembled 30 years ago.
“It was a big challenge. At that time, I only hoped it would be a success,” he said. “If it had been a failure it would be a failure of my own career.”
Baron Nothomb was the recently arrived Belgian ambassador to Thailand in 1985. Not long after he took the post, his commercial attaché, Cory Croymans, came to him with an idea: Belgium should offer Bangkok a bridge that had been built for the World Expo in Brussels in 1958 and dismantled 25 years later, its parts locked up in a warehouse. Seduced by the prospect, the ambassador got to work, and what followed was a series of diplomatic persuasions and an engineering feat between Belgian and Thai experts to attempt something unprecedented on the already-crowded Bangkok roads: to put up a flyover across Witthayu-Sathon-Rama IV in less than 60 hours.
The result, the Thai-Belgian Bridge, has since become a symbol of relations between the two countries. Opened on April 25, 1988, the bridge celebrates its 30th anniversary this year (the gala event to mark the occasion was held last Friday). To many, this is not “just a bridge”: For Bangkok motorists, it became an essential infrastructure on a strategic crossroads and evidence of modern history; for many Belgians, the bridge brings back the memory of old Brussels and tells a story of urban development shared between the two cities.
In 1958, Baron Nothomb says, Belgium was hosting the World Expo, the first since World War II. “Fifty million people would come to Brussels, and we needed to transform the city,” said the former ambassador, who’s now 82.
A bridge was built on Leopold II Avenue to connect the two sides of the city and to ease the traffic flow. The structure would stand there, a modern viaduct fronting the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in central Brussels, until the early 1980s, when a tunnel was constructed to replace it. The bridge, designed to be assembled quickly in order to meet the deadline for the World Expo, was disassembled and its parts stored away.
Until Bangkok came calling. “I had to convince my government, but at the end it wasn’t as difficult as I thought [it would be],” said Baron Northomb. “In 1987, they decided to give the bridge to Bangkok. The parts were then shipped and stored along Witthayu Road.”
The whole load of 2,000 tonnes of steel was transported from Antwerp to the Klong Toey Port in two shipments, according to a report by Koen De Wandeler in the magazine Connect.
The first ship brought 40 bridge elements and arrived in Bangkok in February 1988. The second ship docked in March and unloaded the remaining 83 elements, the substructure and other materials.
While the existing parts would form the flyover, what Bangkok needed was the foundation, labour and erection of the pillars. Then entered construction tycoon Chavarat Charnvirakul , president of Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction.
“I was at a reception at the Belgian embassy and I overheard this conversation about the plans for the new bridge,” recalls Chavarat, who would later become the ambassador’s friend, as well as cabinet minister and acting prime minister of Thailand.
“Someone introduced me and told the ambassador I was the one who could help with the pillars. And I said yes.
“We contributed the men, and our engineers worked on the plan. The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority borrowed heavy lifting equipment for us. The bridge practically cost nothing.”
The Witthayu-Rama IV-Sathon intersection 30 year ago was already a notorious gridlock; those growing up in the 1980s will remember hot afternoons crawling along at the mercy of the traffic stops near a corner of Lumphini Park. The Bangkok governor in 1988 was Maj Gen Chamlong Srimuang, a crewcut ascetic known for his frugal lifestyle, and with Baron Nothomb the decision to put the bridge there was made.
“It wasn’t that hard to decide. That intersection was one of the worst in Bangkok,” says the former ambassador with a laugh.
The foundation work began in February, with Thai and Belgian engineers working on the plan. But the crucial moment came with the erection of the bridge and putting the parts together. The 60-hour deadline was announced, and Bangkok, accustomed to lengthy construction work that dotted the road, wondered if it would be possible.
IT WASN’T HARD TO DECIDE. THAT INTERSECTION WAS ONE OF BANGKOK’S WORST