The Soi 10 construction project, promised to
be completed last November, still obviously has a long way to go.
Manoon Makpol
A sub-contractor hired by City Hall September 7 to
make major repairs to Beach Road Soi 10 have missed yet another
deadline.
Business owners and residents allegedly have been
trying to get the city to fix their street for about 20 years. Work was
finally supposed to start in November 2010, but officials postponed the
work at the request of area hotels that didn’t want the street torn up
until after April 15, 2011. However, work didn’t start for another five
months after that.
Plans call for workers to lay 1,227 meters of new
roadway and foundation. New drainage pipes will carry wastewater to a
Walking Street pipeline that is supposed to connect to the city’s
water-treatment plant on Soi Buakaow.
Currently, this is causing one lane of Pattaya 2nd
Road to be closed to traffic, causing traffic snarls as far back as
Royal Garden Plaza.
The work was expected to continue throughout the
rainy season, wrapping up in November, 2011. Delays caused officials to
set another deadline, promising construction would be finished in
December of 2011. Now, here in February 2012, workers are still on site,
and the soi is still impassable.
Area businesspeople complain that the ongoing
construction project is causing difficulties for many businesses.
Rungladda Kaophipmai noted that not only was the noise, smoke and
traffic a major problem but that there is no guarantee the rains won’t
come early. She also expressed doubt that the project will do anything
to alleviate the problem of drainage and standing water that occurs in
the soi every time it rains heavily.
Chief contractor Somchart Thini-onprakorn stated that
the reasons for the delay were the poor state of the old underground
works including cable wiring, the need to install high voltage electric
poles, and the deepening of the waterway to move the water from the soi
to the water treatment plant.
Construction has left the soi a one lane road and
Somchart asked that commuters and consumers be patient. Extra workers
were put on the job February 16, in a bid to complete the construction
quickly.
Pattaya city had budgeted 5 million baht for the
project which contractors assure will be completed by this month.
People facing any difficulties can contact the
Pattaya Call Center 1337, 24 hour hotline.
