Lamhin Bridge Cost Estimation

How our bridge would work!

NOW

A tractor is too big for the bridge on Lam-Hin side(Liab-Wa-Ree17) so it has to go in on a truck from Su-Ka-Thong side (Liab-Wa-Ree19) and each time a rice-grower has to pay 500baht entrance fee to the Su-Ka-Thong landlord.

Because of the small size of a rice carrier, a rice-grower can have it cross the first bridge on Lam-Hin side to his/her field in order to avoid the cost on an entrance fee.

The farmers use the tractor to harvest and fill rice into a bag then use the rice-carrier to take bags out from the field to the other truck that parks on Liab-Wa-Ree17 Road...not efficient at all!

In addition, there are some rice-growers who do not have a rice-carrier or an access to their fields through the first bridge that belongs to the school owner. These people have to carry bags filled with rice and walk across other bridges themselves.


IN THE FUTURE (HOPEFULLY)

The tractor and the truck would get in from Liab-Wa-Ree17 through the second bridge to the rice field. Rice-growers would then be able to harvest and fill in the truck with rice right away, not having to use rice-carriers or anyone carrying bags anymore...a lot more efficient!

Pics of July 19 Community Meeting

On July 19, Chula and CASE went to community to discuss with the residents on what the bridge is going to be like. Technical information was acquired. Ploy will send out information to CASE engineer this week. Cost estimate and required materials should be known within a week after the engineer receives the information.

Some of the names of community residents who sign up to help build the bridge

Ploy leads the measurement team.

Measuring the dept of the canal.

Tien works with P'Aree, the community leader.

The Go Lamhin Team gathers with the community residents on the bridge that (hopefully) will be replaced by a bigger and stronger one.

7/20 MIT-Chula-CASE Meeting #2

A quick update about what we discussed at our second Skype meeting:

• Chula + CASE did a great job of gathering all of the technical details about the bridge. Ploy is going to prepare the materials to be sent to an engineer. We are expecting our first cost estimate and required materials list within a week.
• MIT is going to prepare a couple of grant proposals and start to find other funding opportunities.

Keep checking back for more updates! A lot of things should be happening this week.

Google Earth Map

Shows the relationship between Sukkatong and Lamhin. Notice how Sukkatong's development is clearly directed and defined by the road that the government built for them several years ago.

7/12 lamhin-chula team meeting

Yesterday, we (Chula team~ Big, Thian, and Pim) along with Ploy (CASE) and her architect friend named Kluay visited the Lam-Hin community for our first group-meeting at around 2.30pm. There were more than 20 people attended, mostly rice-growers and fish famers. The meeting went on quite smoothly in very friendly environment. We had people sitting down and started to introduce ourselves and discuss about the bridge project we are working on.

The Chula team working on the map at CASE with Ploy and Kluay (the guy in red shirt)

The community getting together in front of Lam Hin Health Center

Discussion: why do they need the bridge?

The community helping us out with the map

People discussing and thinking
See the guy in black+red shirt? He is the head person of this Moo 9 (Lam Hin+ Sukathong)

Hands up...who wants the bridge?
seems like everyone does :D

The work continues

This coming saturday, Chula team will go to Lamhin community for the fifth time along with ploy (CASE) to have the first group meeting with (hopefully) the whole community. Stay with us, we will tell you about the meeting as soon as we can.