Two-way traffic will return to part of Second Road this weekend for the Pattaya Music Festival.
Mayor Poramet Ngampichet chaired a Feb. 27 planning meeting for the festival, which plays out on Pattaya and Jomtien beaches for the next four weekends.
To mitigate the traffic nightmare that occurs every time the city closes Beach Road, Pattaya this year will make one-way Second Road two-way from the Dolphin Roundabout to Central Road on March 3-4, 17-18, 24-25 and March 31-April 1.
Beach Road will be closed those weekends from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. To avoid confusion and accidents, Pattaya traffic police and city hall security will be out with traffic signs, barricades, rubber cones and traffic lights.
The March 10-11 concerts on Jomtien Beach will not see Jomtien Beach Road closed at all, although parking will be banned.
In addition, Pattaya Soi 1 and Soi 2 will be changed those weekends to one-way traffic only, with vehicles on one street going west, the other east. Beach Road access from all other side streets will be blocked and parking for non-residents prohibited.
Also on Feb. 27, Deputy Mayor Thitiphan Phettrakul inspected work to finish rebuilding of sidewalks from Soi 1 to Soi 4, which have been ripped up as part of the beach landscaping project.
City hall had demanded that the sidewalks be made safe for the music festival-goers, but the contractor recently said the work wouldn’t be complete until the middle of March.
