Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link and City Air Terminal Pr犀利士 oject
Authors: Dr.Wisit U.Pongsa, Anuchit Charoensuppakul, Paiboon Vipoosana,
Subunluck Vanichkorkul, Piya Ratanawuttisuwan
Wisit Engineering Consultants (WE Consultants) Bangkok, Thailand
It is the policy of the Royal Thai Government to implement Suvarnabhumi Airport as the regional aviation hub one of the states of the art in Asia and is scheduled to start operation in September 2005. In such responding, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will undertake and implement the modernized electrified line rail transportation system of high performance and reliability linking between the inner city area of Bangkok Metropolitan and Suvarnabhumi Airport to efficiently support and maximize the level of service of the airport for the benefit of the airport users, airport related activities and general publics at a reasonable fare structures and competitive to other transportation systems. Additionally, the system will enhance and support the intra and inter-modal transfer of passengers with the existing public mass transport which will result in the effectiveness in overall public transport network and in order to encourage for the more usage of public mode of transport with the aim of alleviating the overall existing traffic congestion situations, less if not much. Moreover, the city planning in the whole view based upon this implementation, regarded as the benchmark will be facilitated and enhanced aiming for the fully utilization of the limited land in the inner Bangkok city area for the best benefit in view of city area for the best benefit in view of city development in whole. The main component of the project at the beginning will compose of basis operation and additional supporting service in 3 aspects:
· SA Express (Suvarnabhumi Airport Express)
The train operates between Makkasan/Asok and Suvarnabhumi Airport with the total distance of 25 km. and traveling time of not more than 15 minutes.
· SA City Line (Suvarnabhumi Airport City Line)
The train operates between Phaya Thai – Makkasan/Asok and Suvarnabhumi Airport with the total distance of 28 km. and traveling time of not more than 30 minutes.
· City Air Terminal (CAT)
Located at Makkasan/Asok station, the additional supporting service for air passenger to check in ticket and luggage in town before traveling to the airport.
The location and alignment of the project is as shown in the following page.
ABSTRACT
The City Air Terminal (CAT) of the Airport Rail Link and City Air Terminal Project is located at the heart of Bangkok, Makkasan district, Thailand. When completed in 2009, CAT will be the grand station serving as a city air terminal for airlines’ passengers check-in and for boarding and alighting of passengers up to 300,000 passengers per day, to and from Suvarnabhumi airport. The CAT covers a gross floor area of 78,000 square meters configured into three (3) storey structure for parking, arrival, departure and concourse area, and two (2) storey structure for platform area. CAT is designed to accommodate fours (4) standard gauge tracks, two tracks for express line (SA Express Line) with a journey taking 15 minutes, and two tracks for city line (SA City Line) with a journey taking 30 minutes.
The CAT is founded on Bangkok clay. Deep bored piles is adopted for transferring the load to the sand stratum. The superstructure of concourse area and the train platform are cast-in-situ post-tensioned flat slab and prestrssed girders with cast-in-situ slab, respectively. Arch trusses, virendeel trusses and two (2) hinges plate-girder archs with metal deck are utilized for roof framing of concourse area and train platform area, respectively. The paper elaborates the structural engineering aspect and description of the structural system chosen and structural design of foundation and superstructure.