The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has said preliminary investigations indicate that heavy equipment lifting a concrete segment caused the collapse of an elevated road under construction on Luang Phaeng Road on Monday evening, killing two people and injuring 12 others.
The collapsed 600-metre section — stretching from Lotus’s Lat Krabang branch to Jorakay Noi police station — is part of the 2.2-kilometre-long On Nut-Lat Krabang elevated road project.
The two people killed were an engineer and a construction worker. All the injured were construction workers who His Majesty the King has accepted as patients under royal patronage.
Many vehicles were crushed, a building was damaged, and several power poles were toppled.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that an initial investigation revealed that a beam launcher for installing a concrete segment between the 83rd and 84th ground columns of the elevated road suddenly tilted and became unstable, leading to the accident.
However, he added the BMA needs to work with the Engineering Institute of Thailand to establish the exact cause of the tragedy and determine the fate of a joint consortium of two companies, Tharawan Construction and Npa Construction, who won the 1.664-billion-baht project.
Mr Chadchart dismissed rumours that the BMA asked the contractor to change the elevated road’s design. “We ordered no such change,” he said.
The Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation was yesterday continuing its search for survivors who might have been trapped under the rubble.
Lat Krabang district chief, Chatchaya Khamchan, said an incident room had been set up close to where the disaster happened with the cooperation of various agencies, including the district office, the BMA’s Public Works Department, police, doctors and rescuers.