The Uttamanusorn Bridge, better known as Saphan Mon, was built almost 30 years ago by the people, for the people of Ban Wangka, a Mon village in Sangkhla Buri district in Kanchanaburi. The bridge is the most popular tourist landmark in the district. It has been on the public’s radar since it was partially destroyed in July last year.
About 70m of the 850m-long wooden bridge was torn apart due to strong currents in the Song Kalia River after days of heavy rain. Restoration work began on April 8 this year after Kanchanaburi governor Chaiwat Limwantha awarded the job to Por Rungruang Wassaduphan Company.
But the company missed its Aug 6 deadline, after spending 120 days restoring the bridge. Army engineers of the 9th Military Engineer Regiment and Mon carpenters took charge of repairs on Wednesday. Locals have estimated that repairs are only 30% complete. One told me that if the company had finished more than 70% of the job, as the governor claimed, all the bridge struts would already be in place. But there were still some missing — five or six struts from the bridge’s middle section — when I visited the village last weekend.
Causes of the delay vary, depending on which side you ask. When I asked locals, they said it was because of the bureaucratic system. Some even pinpointed Chaiwat, who they said did not approve the repairs. When I asked the governor, he said it took time to find the right construction materials, especially the mai daeng (ironwood) planks and poles.
Villagers and the abbot of Wat Wang Wiwekaram, Phra Maha Suchart Siripanyo, believe repairs should have been handled by the temple and locals from the outset, as the bridge has always been taken care of by the villagers.
Saphan Mon was initiated in 1986 by the highly revered late abbot Luang Phor Uttama of Wat Wang Wiwekaram, and built by locals without the use of heavy machines. The bridge has undergone minor repairs several times. Each time, it was repaired by the villagers and with the people’s money.
When the bridge was torn apart, the worst damage in its history, the 10 million baht paid to the contracted company for its uncompleted work was also from villagers’ donations. The budget from the Office of the Governor, provincial or local authorities, was zero. None.
I asked locals why Chaiwat stepped in and didn’t allow them to handle their own issue.
One told me he might have thought that fixing the bridge was easy.
Fame and money are what people always yearn for, another noted.
But Chaiwat reasoned that he wanted to make sure the materials used in the bridge’s restoration were legal, and that the donated money was placed in the right hands.
Nationwide, people and several organisations have donated a total of around 11.6 million baht for the restoration. Whenever a lump sump was donated, ranging from 2-5 million baht, by an organisation or a corporation, it became news, with pictures of Chaiwat attached to it.
To show his commitment, he set up the Saphan Uttamanusorn Restoration Committee to take charge of repairs last year. The committee set up a working group to find missing wood from the bridge for its restoration.
It also hired a Scuba diving team from the nearby Vajiralongkorn Dam to search for the ironwood planks and poles from October to December.
Due to high water levels, the team could find only 1% of the submerged wood.
A few months ago, villagers took the submerged wood out of the river themselves, storing it on the temple’s grounds. Meanwhile, Por Rungruang Wassaduphan Company imported wood from Laos.
But the wood is substandard — the planks are 3.8cm rather than 5cm thick.
The wood was also freshly cut, which means it had not yet passed through the air-drying process.
The locals are not happy with the repairs and the delay in the bridge’s restoration. The Mon community in Sangkhla Buri is quite strong and can look after the bridge itself. There really is no use for the governor to intervene and take charge.
No one asked for his help.
The lesson to be learned here is that if one takes on a problem that is not his or her business, he or she can very well become part of the problem.
Karnjana Karnjanatawe is a travel writer for Life.