Pattaya officials and utility executives are asking businesses to begin using smaller trucks because botched roadwork projects and poor maintenance are resulting in low-hanging power and communications lines being pulled down.
City Councilman Sriviset Rodarun chaired the March 23 meeting with Provincial Electricity Authority officials and executives from large Pattaya-area businesses that was called after a string of incidents in which large trucks snagged wires, pulling them, or even the poles they’re attached to, down.
Sriviset said communication lines – telephone, cable television and internet – should be 5.5 meters above the ground while power lines must be 5.9 meters high.
He added that the city is surveying the area to determine the highest-risk areas for wire-snag accidents and will post warning signs.
One of the retail executives attending scoffed at the request, noting that the size of cargo trucks is standardized across the country, if not world.
He asserted that it was city hall and the PEA’s own fault that lines are being pulled down. Firstly, he said, haphazard road improvements have raised road surfaces while leaving cables at the same height. Second, poor maintenance has resulted in an overabundance of cables, causing them to sag.
The PEA acknowledged sagging lines were a problem and said companies that notice low-hanging lines can call the utility to have them fixed.
