The old fifteen hundred foot long Saphan Mon Bridge in Thailand's Sangkhlaburi town was, until it collapsed in July of this year, the second longest bridge of it's type in the world. Not only was the bridge necessary for their daily activities, it was also a well known tourist attraction.Knowing full well that the authorities would take forever to fix the situation, the two peoples on either side of the Song Kalia River, the Thais and the ethnic Mon people, were determined to show they were a united community. Five hundred folk from the two villages built this beautiful bamboo bridge and completed this wonderful piece of floating engineering in only six days.
People can make the impossible happen...
Bamboo sure is the most amazingly versatile building material. Pity it's not grown and used more here in New Zealand. Well done Thais and Mon people.
ReplyDeleteThat's nice positive news. Will it float up when the rains come, do you think? I suppose the rainy season is just ending, as that's what killed the old bridge, so it might last through the cool season. The trouble is that the government will probably never do anything now.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite an impressive example local people doing for themselves what the government evidently doesn't have the will, the funds, or perhaps not the competence to do in a timely way. I presume these folks were volunteers? And I wonder who was responsible for the original design, which they appear to have copied as first constructed.
ReplyDeleteimpossible to do in nz to much red tape
ReplyDelete