BANGKOK, THAILAND – The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said it would begin demolishing the Samsen police station on October 22 to allow repair work on a major sinkhole that opened on Samsen Road above an MRT construction site on September 24.
Sinkhole stabilised after sand was pumped in
Contractors had already deposited 5,330 cubic metres of sand into the crater, an amount officials said was enough to fill more than two Olympic-size swimming pools. The road surface above the collapse sat about 2.65 metres below the original street level.
Vice-Governor Wisanu Subsompon said engineers had seen signs of stabilisation during a site inspection. He said crews would place roughly two metres of coarse sand before starting the demolition. “The underground conditions have stabilised. As next steps we will fill with coarse sand, about two metres high, before beginning demolition of the police station,” he said.
Short demolition, longer restoration
The BMA expected the demolition of the police station to take four to five days once it began. Clearing rubble was projected to take about a week after that, with the restoration of the road surface following the debris removal. Officials warned that complete repair works could take several months.
Authorities said restoring vehicle access to the parking area of Vajira Hospital would be treated as the immediate priority when traffic lanes were rebuilt.
Safety-first approach during assessments
City officials carried out ongoing structural assessments of the police station, adjacent police housing and surrounding buildings. “We are proceeding step by step. Doing everything at once would be too dangerous. Safety must be the top priority, as Governor Chadchart Sittipunt has repeatedly stressed,” Vice-Governor Wisanu said.
Recent heavy rains proved an unexpected reassurance: water pooled in the sinkhole area rather than seeping into the tunnel below, suggesting that the subway tunnel had not taken on water, officials said.
Subway construction blamed for collapse
The sinkhole appeared above work on a Purple Line extension station being built by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand. The MRTA attributed the collapse to waterlogged, soft ground in the vicinity of the excavation.
Senior representatives from the disaster protection agency, the city civil engineering office, the MRTA and Dusit district authorities joined the inspection. With demolition scheduled to begin, officials said the immediate goal was to make the road and critical access points safe before returning Samsen Road to normal traffic flow.
The BMA and the MRTA will continue to monitor ground and structural conditions as the recovery work proceeds, emphasising a cautious approach to protect residents, road users and nearby institutions.