Rama IX Bridge ( th, สะพานพระราม ๙, , ) is a bridge in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
over the
Chao Phraya River. It connects the
Yan Nawa District to
Rat Burana District as a part of the Tha Ruea – Dao Khanong Section of
Chaloem Maha Nakhon Expressway.
The bridge was named in the honor of King
Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej ( th, ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; ; ; (Sanskrit: ''bhūmi·bala atulya·teja'' - "might of the land, unparalleled brilliance"); 5 December 192713 October 2016), conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great ...
's 60th birthday. The opening date coincided with the king's birthday, with a million people walking over it.
[''Beanz means Hines / Peter Hines — the worldwide civil engineer'' pages 17 and 18.] It was the first
cable-stayed bridge
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...
in Thailand
and had the second-longest cable-stayed span in the world when it opened in 1987.
The original colour scheme, with white pylons and black cables, was replaced with an all yellow scheme representing the king in 2006.
A new eight-lane double-pylon cable-stayed bridge paralleling the Rama IX Bridge has been under construction for some time. Part of the Rama III-Dao Khanong-Western Bangkok Outer Ring Road expressway project, it is intended to relieve traffic congestion on the existing single-pylon bridge. The new bridge's official opening will be in early 2024, after which the Rama IX bridge will be closed for an extensive renovation, which includes a sensor system for added safety.
Bridge structure
The steel superstructure includes the bridge, rigged mast, and cable. The main span of the bridge, which is stretched between two poles, has a length of 450 meters. The main span is a trapezoid 33 meters wide. The bridge has a walkway along its side. The bridge has two main pylons 3 x 4.50 meters. This serves to hold the tension of the cable and weight into the pylon pier. The 121 – 167 mm diameter cables consist of many small wires wound together. The cables vary in length from 50 to 223 meters can absorb the tension for 1,500–3,000 tons.
Approach viaducts
The gradually sloping viaducts on each side of the river are dual-double-T,
post-tensioned, concrete structures with thirteen 50-metre double spans on each bank cast in-situ with a steel travelling shutter, up to 40 metres above the ground for sufficient shipping clearance.
The Senior Engineer
Peter Hines
Peter Hines (born 31 October 1948) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Footscray in the Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving a ...
[26 January 2021 obituary and his photo on page 27 of London's Daily Telegraph.] overcame a major construction problem: ''On releasing the 950-ton travelling shuttering, the suction of the shutters could pull the new concrete off. I suggested that as we were only carrying the dead load at the time, we should
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
the work to about 2/3rds the finally required stress so that the material would not “hog” (rise in the middle) so much – this worked well. After removing the shuttering, we applied the full stress.''
See also
*
King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej ( th, ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; ; ; (Sanskrit: ''bhūmi·bala atulya·teja'' - "might of the land, unparalleled brilliance"); 5 December 192713 October 2016), conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rama 9 Bridge
Road bridges in Bangkok
Cable-stayed bridges in Thailand
Bridges completed in 1987
Crossings of the Chao Phraya River
Yan Nawa district
1987 establishments in Thailand