Flashermac Posted January 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Ah, you mean Hopehenge. Nah, that was supposed to be an early version of the Skytrain. The company went bust and it still stands there. Would have been nice - except not many folks go to Don Muang these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Hi, "Hopehenge" I like that one Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Makes you realise that if Hopehenge (great name) was being built and billions of baht raised, in the early 90's, while swampypoo was still being "built", that they "knew" that swampypoo wouldn't get opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelseafan Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Aha, my geogrpahy is crap, I seem to recall on my last visit that they were planning to extend the line to the new airport, is it under way or do we have to wait another 45 years for its completion |? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 The Skytrain is slowing being built out to Swampypoom. Got a long ways to go yet. Maybe in a couple of years??? p.s. Be great fun getting off a long flight, lugging your bags onto the Skytrain and standing all the way into the city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_khon_neua Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Maybe a few clarifications in this thread are in order: Cyber world is indeed a 52 storey office building that is being actively marketed by CBRE, among other major agents in Bangkok. It is a class A space, though probably a bit towards the bottom. Was supposedly going to ready for occupancy in 1Q 2008. Apparently the damage from the fire is superficial, but will take a few months to repair. My information is most tenants expect to move in as scheduled. The term Hopehenge is very old, dated form a 1999 Bangkok Post article: â??Like a Bangkok version of Stonehenge, about one thousand tall concrete pillars stand mysteriously idle from the North of Bangkok to the inner city. They are the remnants of the Hopewell elevated road and train project.â? The Hopewell Project was not an airport link (though there was too be an airport station). It was primarly meant to be a 60km elevated commuter railway connecting the northern Bangkok suburbs to downtown using existing railway right of way. Only 13% of project was completed in 7 years before the government canceled the contract due to non-performance. The Airport Link is not part of the BTS, it is owned by the State Railway and will have no direct connection to the BTS. Looks like it will be done in about a year. Probably 80% of the civil work is done. The four-car express trains will operate on the 25.7 kilometre railway from the Bangkok City Air Terminal in the Makkasan-Asoke area to the new airport terminal. The system is designed so that passengers can check-in at the City Air Terminal and have their luggage conveniently transported in the baggage compartment of the train without further handling. Personally I think it will be flop. With 2 expressways already linking it to downtown Bangkok, why would anyone take their luggage to a station, ride a train into town and then get a taxi to a hotel or such? It is just too convenient to get a taxi at the airport straight to your destination. Besides, I think the area around the Makkasan station is going to be a traffic nightmare to get to hotels on Sukhumvit. I have often heard the urban legend on the time limit on completing buildings as 5 (or some amount of) years after construction has stopped. The idea is that exposure to the elements has damaged the structure (especially the steel). I have never found anything to back that up, and when I have asked civil/structural engineers in my company they have said it depends on each individual structure as there are so many variables you cannot have a hard rule. Virtually all abandoned building in Bangkok are not steel structures anyway, but are concrete, and these are most likely to be able to stand partially finished for many years without structural damage before being completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 I used to do it in Hong Kong a couple of times a week. But always had a seat there. The train is good. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Ah, you mean Hopehenge. Nah, that was supposed to be an early version of the Skytrain. The company went bust and it still stands there. Would have been nice - except not many folks go to Don Muang these days. A bit off there Frashy. Hopewell is a huge company and is still alive and well. And a lot of the Thai Stonehenge was along the route of the current Swampy-poon link in Makkasan (not just along Vibhavadi). Of course the project was a debacle, mostly on the Thai side. But Hope-less was not in the clear either -- they (coupled with the Thai gummint) forgot to secure ownership of the land for the project before they began construction !! But the State Railway of Thailand was the real culprit in the death of this project -- way to complicated to state why here, but basically they were one of the major landowners who refused to sell. And then there was the 1997 crash. Suffice to say that a series of mismanagement flubs between the Honk-keys and the Thais caused the mess... Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 ...Virtually all abandoned building in Bangkok are not steel structures anyway, but are concrete, and these are most likely to be able to stand partially finished for many years without structural damage before being completed. The concrete has rebar, ie steel rods, that are exposed to the elements. The water, over time, will travel along the rebar and rust it deep inside the concrete. This weakens the structure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelseafan Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 The Skytrain is slowing being built out to Swampypoom. Got a long ways to go yet. Maybe in a couple of years??? p.s. Be great fun getting off a long flight, lugging your bags onto the Skytrain and standing all the way into the city. Better than being ripped off by the cabs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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