Tawlawi : Reconstruction of Thailand’s longest wooden bridge, located in Sangkhlaburi District, Kanchanaburi Province in Thailand, will be finished in Taboung month at the close of the Buddhist year, or March 2011.
The wooden bridge has been under construction for the past 16 months, since the spring of 2009; only 100 meters remain for reconstruction of the 400 meter long landmark. The reconstruction team is comprised of 10 permanent workers, including a cast of Mon architects.
The bridge was originally constructed over two decades ago, when the original town of Sangkhlaburi became submerged under the Khao lam reservoir after the construction of the Kanchanaburi dam. The bridge connects the main town of Sangkhlaburi with the Mon community of Wangka village, on the other side of the reservoir.
The architects for the reconstruction project report being particularly challenged by a 15 meter-long stretch of the bridge that had become caved-in and crooked over time.
“It [the bridge] has connected Mon and Thai sides since over 20 years ago. That’s why it [the bridge] was not strong and we had to do a big repair,” architect Nai Jade stated.
The reconstruction of the wooden bridge has been conducted both through manpower and the dictates of traditional Mon architectural techniques. The architects for the project constructed and designed a wooded crane for the laying of the wooded planks that make up the bridge’s basic structure. According to Nai Paing, a former architecture who lives near the bridge in Wangka village, the crane has become a spectacle of interest for tourists and travelers in Sangkhlaburi.
Nai Jade said that the wooden support polls that hold up the bridge are being reinforced into a cross-support structure the project’s architects have also chosen “ironwood” from Thailand’s forests for their material of choice for the new structure. This decision was made after the architects noted how the ironwood trees submerged by the reservoir failed to decompose, unlike the wood used for the original bridge, which sustained significant water damage.
“The wood except for ironwood is really deteriorating at the old bridge. The bridge will be strong for 30- 40 years after repairing [the bridge with only ironwood,” said the leader of repair team, Nai Japan.
The project received permission from the Thai Forestry Department to obtain the ironwood used in the bridge’s repair. Â This is the first time that the bridge has undergone a repair of this magnitude.
The original wooden bridge was first commissioned by famous Mon monk Luang Phor Uttama in 1985, in the Buddhist year of 2528. It is 400 meters long and 30 meters high in the center of the structure.
According to Nai Jade, the entire repair project will require a total of roughly 700 tons of ironwood, with a total of 1200 planks used. The project is being overseen by the head abbot in Wangka village.
