SaiGon: Tide Tables needed to get home - Leap Tide over for this month

And highly inconvenient it was too as my wife was stuck out on the highway until very late at night because of it on the 11th. Something tells me that there was a glitch in the planning process when all the new roads were built out to D8, for example. Maybe we should compile a check sheet for the HCM city engineers, although you would think that they would already be sensitised to flooding given that the Delta is an alluvial flood plain.

Lucky that I am not in  HCM

eodmatt wrote:

And highly inconvenient it was too as my wife was stuck out on the highway until very late at night because of it on the 11th. ...

Actually, it is all the illegal water pumping that is done by cheap industries that are causing the problems - and big ones they are!

In Quan Thu Duc the land under some modern developments is sinking at a rate approaching 20 centimetres annually.

That's ONE METRE every 5 YEARS sinkage!

The building foundations become unstable and houses start tilting. Even modern apartment blocks are at risk unless this illegal pumping is stopped.

But the city is busy tracking these characters down using some very innovative techniques.

The French are also culpable, they filled in many canals during the early part of the last century. Bangkok copied this, and subsequently it, too, suffered bad flooding.

I often wonder if a subway is the best answer for transit in HCM, or whether Ha Noi's overhead rail is the answer. New York City suffered during the Sandy storm, is HCM setting itself up for the same problems?

The sewers let enough water in, imagine the capacity of subway tunnels!

At least with a subway, the Govt doesn't have all the hassles of buying the required land they would need for an overhead rail system, but I always wonder when cities build subways, where does the dirt/rock/mud, etc, go???, ( if the material on the top is called overburden, is this called underburden?, spellcheck doesn't like it, but then US spellcheck doesn't like spellcheck either. ),

bluenz wrote:

At least with a subway, the Govt doesn't have all the hassles of buying the required land they would need for an overhead rail system, but I always wonder when cities build subways, where does the dirt/rock/mud, etc, go???, ( if the material on the top is called overburden, is this called underburden?, spellcheck doesn't like it, but then US spellcheck doesn't like spellcheck either. ),

Materials removed when digging tunnels, foundations, channels, or the unwanted rock and shale removed during coal or mineral mining etc is called "spoil".

Where materials are extracted from the ground so that valuable elements can be recovered, the denuded "spoil" remaining is known as "tailings".

Tailings (and over-burden etc) when dumped in a heap or used for ground reclamation, infill and so on are referred to as "spoil".

Slag comprises the waste products left after metals have been "smelted" from mined materials, called ores.

And (gratuitous  information) in the UK in some places a "slag" is a slang term for a female who plies her trade as a "whore".

Interesting! Flooding is certainly a major problem here in parts of D8. But, surely the impact of pumping, at least here in D8, is minuscule compared to the impact of tidal inundation?

There are also problems of raw sewage in some waterways and yet I see locals fishing in many places where there is the smell of sewage.

bluenz wrote:

At least with a subway, the Govt doesn't have all the hassles of buying the required land they would need for an overhead rail system ...

Land wouldn't cost much - you just run the overhead rails down the centre of existing roads. If the stations were at track height all they would require is somewhere to terminate the stairs/elevators.

Some of the proposed 'subway' will be above grade - why dig a tunnel when you have bare land.

The latest modification is to run the subway out to the new DONG NAI AIRPORT which would be a real winner.And all those Vinasun taxis without change will really suffer.

Jaitch wrote:

bluenz wrote:

At least with a subway, the Govt doesn't have all the hassles of buying the required land they would need for an overhead rail system ...

Land wouldn't cost much - you just run the overhead rails down the centre of existing roads. If the stations were at track height all they would require is somewhere to terminate the stairs/elevators.

Some of the proposed 'subway' will be above grade - why dig a tunnel when you have bare land.

The latest modification is to run the subway out to the new DONG NAI AIRPORT which would be a real winner.And all those Vinasun taxis without change will really suffer.

Running the subway to the airport would be a stunning development. If it is anything like the HK MTR it will be brilliant (although not so big, obviously). A few weeks ago whilst in Kowloon, I checked my baggage in at the Mong Kok subway station, caught the airport express direct to the airport, went straight through security and immigration and straight to the Cathay lounge (where they do the best Bloody Mary in Asia).

Easy and stress free.

Jaitch wrote:

bluenz wrote:

At least with a subway, the Govt doesn't have all the hassles of buying the required land they would need for an overhead rail system ...

Land wouldn't cost much - you just run the overhead rails down the centre of existing roads. If the stations were at track height all they would require is somewhere to terminate the stairs/elevators.

Some of the proposed 'subway' will be above grade - why dig a tunnel when you have bare land.

The latest modification is to run the subway out to the new DONG NAI AIRPORT which would be a real winner.And all those Vinasun taxis without change will really suffer.

Do they provide parking for passengers vehicles at the stations? They would still require land for the stations even with a " Subway ".
A problem with have had up here with the new Dung Quat  -- Quang Ngai motorway, ( 4 lane ), is some farmers holding out for better compensation, ( yes , amazingly, the Govt isn't just grabbing their land ), you can see on Google Earth, where the roads stops and starts.

bluenz wrote:

A problem with have had up here with the new Dung Quat  -- Quang Ngai motorway, ( 4 lane ), is some farmers holding out for better compensation, ( yes , amazingly, the Govt isn't just grabbing their land ), you can see on Google Earth, where the roads stops and starts.

Seems to me the only government using heavy-handed land tactics - ignoring the out right criminal actions such as Hai Phong and Da Nang - is Ha Noi.

When the Peoples Committee of HCM wanted to reclaim it's land, from squatters, along some river banks and in Quan 2, it compensated the dispossessed for 'improvements' some called houses AND provided them with new, as in never used, apartments.

A few holdouts (for more/higher compensation) in an decrepit building on Tran Hung Dao are still 'in possession' whilst the government slowly ups their offer. Not too pressing given that HCM has to borrow money to rebuild the site, difficult when your credit lines are tapped out.

There are several proposed redevelopment sites around the Metro HCM area awaiting money and being rented out as truck or bus parking areas. Thankfully the new Cloth Market near Ta Uyen and Hong Bang is nearly complete so all the merchants can gather in one building making it easier for consumers.

Jaitch wrote:

bluenz wrote:

A problem with have had up here with the new Dung Quat  -- Quang Ngai motorway, ( 4 lane ), is some farmers holding out for better compensation, ( yes , amazingly, the Govt isn't just grabbing their land ), you can see on Google Earth, where the roads stops and starts.

Seems to me the only government using heavy-handed land tactics - ignoring the out right criminal actions such as Hai Phong and Da Nang - is Ha Noi.

When the Peoples Committee of HCM wanted to reclaim it's land, from squatters, along some river banks and in Quan 2, it compensated the dispossessed for 'improvements' some called houses AND provided them with new, as in never used, apartments.

A few holdouts (for more/higher compensation) in an decrepit building on Tran Hung Dao are still 'in possession' whilst the government slowly ups their offer. Not too pressing given that HCM has to borrow money to rebuild the site, difficult when your credit lines are tapped out.

There are several proposed redevelopment sites around the Metro HCM area awaiting money and being rented out as truck or bus parking areas. Thankfully the new Cloth Market near Ta Uyen and Hong Bang is nearly complete so all the merchants can gather in one building making it easier for consumers.

Sometimes up here they will give you land in another area as compensation, I found this out while trying to buy some rural land, very , very cheap, upon further investigation, we found out it was land that was being used as compensation for the people who lost their land when the Dung Quat Industrial estate was being developed, and some crook was already trying to sell some, ( some houses already there, had no papers re land ownership, sort of like 50 yrs years of squatting )