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Suvarnabhumhi Airport has been built on a swampy area that is often flooded during the rainy season. At certain times of the year, the ground is lower than sea level which makes it difficult, if not impossible to pump the water out. In the past, this area was also purposefully flooded in order to save Bangkok from devastating floods. But, over the years, houses, factories and roads have been built here which has contributed to more floods. In fact, when Suvarnabhumi Airport was built, about 20,000 rai of flood-retention area was lost.

As a consequence, the Royal Irrigation Department started a drainage project to remove the flood water from around Suvarnabhumi Airport and Samrong Canal to the sea. A 78 meter wide and 12 kilometer long irrigation canal was built. The multi-billion baht project is still under construction but it is now coming closer to the finishing date of 2010. We recently went to take pictures at a site inspection of the Pump Station in Bang Pu.

This is a picture of the four pumps at Bang Pu Pumping Station. It is a Concrete Volute Pump with a capacity of 25 cubic meters per second. The four pumps have a combined capacity of 100 cubic meters per second.  The casing (volute) is made of standard reinforced concrete, with a very robust design against corrosion and abrasion, irrespective of the nature of the water. Power is supplied by a 115 KV Substation.

From the pumping station, the water is pumped up and over Sukhumwit Road on an aqueduct. This is 25 meters wide with walls 3.15 meters high. The aqueduct is 6 meters above the road. From here, it goes down a slope on the far side and out into the Gulf of Thailand.Most of this and the pumping station seems to be finished already. The irrigation canal at the southern end also seems to be complete and the two lane highway on each side has already been paved. At present they are still building a road bridge over Theparak Road. This will eventually act as a shortcut between Bang Na-Trad Highway and Sukhumwit Road along the coast.

This is looking over the aqueduct that goes over Sukhumwit Road. In the distance you can see the Gulf of Thailand.

This is looking back the other way towards the aqueduct.

Now looking out to the sea.

ดูรูปและข่าวล่าสุดเกี่ยวกับโครงการนี้ได้ที่ สมุทรปราการฟอรั่ม
More pictures and latest updates can be found on the Samut Prakan Forums.