The Bang Na Expressway (full name: Bang Na - Bang Phli - Bang Pakong Expressway), officially Burapha Withi Expressway ( th, ทางพิเศษบูรพาวิถี), is a six-lane elevated highway in
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 ...
. It is a
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implement ...
and runs above National Highway route 34, (Bang Na–Trat Highway) owned by the
Expressway Authority of Thailand
The Expressway Authority of Thailand ( th, การทางพิเศษแห่งประเทศไทย) (EXAT) is a state enterprise under the Ministry of Transport. It was founded in 1972, and operates Thailand's expressway ( ''than ...
(EXAT). The bridge was the achievement of
Sukavich Rangsitpol deputy prime minister of
Chuan Leekpai
Chuan Leekpai ( th, ชวน หลีกภัย, , ; ; born 28 July 1938) is a Thai politician who is the current President of the National Assembly of Thailand as well as the incumbent Speaker of the Thai House of Representatives. Previou ...
Cabinet (1992-1995). The Bang Na Expressway was designed by the late
Louis Berger Louis Berger (1914 – 1996) was an American civil engineer. A graduate of Tufts College, Berger received his Master's degree in soils and geology from MIT and Doctorate in soil mechanics from Northwestern. He was a former faculty member of Pennsyl ...
.
History
The Bang Na Expressway was conceived by the
Expressway and Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (ETA). The structure was built using a
design-build contracting method. The columns and superstructure were designed by
Jean M. Muller (U.S.) and the alignment and foundations were designed by Asian Engineering Consultants (Thailand). The owner's engineer was
Louis Berger Group
Louis Berger (formerly known as Berger Group Holdings) is a full-service engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, program and construction management and economic development firm based in Morristown, New Jersey. Founded in 1953 in H ...
(U.S.) and the project was built by a joint venture of
Bilfinger & Berger (Germany) and Ch. Karnchang (Thailand). It took of concrete to build the bridge. The bridge was completed in January 2000.
Records
The world's longest car bridge, the Bang Na Expressway, held the title of the world's longest bridge from 2000 until 2008. Today, it is the seventh
longest bridge in the world.
Structural description
The highway is
elevated
An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train for short) is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks ...
onto a
viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...
that has an average span length of . It is a
box girder bridge
A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite of steel and ...
.
There are two toll plazas on the elevated structure where the structure must widen to accommodate twelve lanes. The toll system is done by Kapsch TrafficCom AB (Sweden).
Kapsch TrafficCom AB equips world longest bridge
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See also
* List of bridges by length
This is a list of the world's longest bridges that are more than in length sorted by their full length above land and water. The main span is the longest span without any ground support.
'' Note: There is no standard way to measure the total ...
* List of bridge megaprojects
* Expressway
References
External links
*
The Bang Na Expressway
(1,1 MB PDF-file with plans and photos)
{{Road infrastructure in Thailand
Controlled-access highways in Thailand
Transport in Bangkok
Box girder bridges
Bridges completed in 2000
2000 establishments in Thailand