Construction techniques and development of 1st monorail system in Thailand

Abstract

This paper aims to present the construction techniques and development of first and unique monorail system in Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 km2 and has a population of over eight million, or 12.6 percent of the country's population. In the last decade, Bangkok has attracted millions of migrants seeking economic opportunity and city is expanding quickly. Recently, Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA) Thailand has decided to adopt monorail system in Bangkok as a rapid transit system due to the limited space, narrow roads and sharp curves in the city. The design of monorail track lines permits flexible and various alignments that include curves of small radiuses and large slopes. The first two projects i.e., Pink Line and Yellow Line projects consist of elevated structure around 64.9 km long, 53 stations, 2 depots and 2 park-and-ride buildings. MRTA has awarded these projects (design, test run and construction of first two lines) to the BSR Joint Venture who invited Sino-Thai Engineering & Construction Public Company Limited (STECON), Thailand, as exclusive contractor to be responsible for civil works including design, construction and installation of different components. In contrast to the traditional monorail girders, STECON proposed a novel four-span post-tensioned girder system in which pre-cast monorail girders will be post-tensioned in such a way that post-tension tendons will run through four consecutive spans. The salient features of the proposed system are low cost, safe and less construction time. © 20th Congress of IABSE, New York City 2019: The Evolving Metropolis - Report. All rights reserved.