With no working traffic lights, this intersection of Jomtien 2nd Road and Soi Wat Bunkanchanaram is a free-for-all and the site of traffic accidents.
Nine years after construction began, Jomtien Second Road remains incomplete, with unfinished sections acting as magnets for construction-related vehicle accidents.
While city officials have, for years, contended work is nearly complete, the state of Second Road says otherwise. Sidewalks are a mess, holes gape where electricity poles should go, and the busy intersection near Bunkanchanaram temple is imperiled by non-working traffic lights.
With no working traffic lights, this intersection of Jomtien 2nd Road and Soi Wat Bunkanchanaram is a free-for-all and the site of traffic accidents.
“I’ve been driving here for approximately 2 months and have found that the intersection is often littered with accidents,” said motorcycle taxi driver Nopadol Sukhkhaeng. He said the “s” curve before the intersection is dangerous, with drivers speeding through it and then crashing in the unregulated crossing.
Most recently, he said, a 10-wheeled vehicle and car that both refused to yield collided, then smashed into a third vehicle, he said.
The Numan curve before the Thappraya intersection near Thepprasit Road also attracts accidents.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome admitted that work on the last few kilometers before Sukhumvit Road has been slow, but stressed that 80 percent of the construction on Jomtien Second Road is done.
He said the non-working signals have been caused by delays in laying underground electric lines, calling it a “meticulous job” and that planning took a long time.
Meanwhile, the afternoon Pattaya Mail visited the site, there was in fact one backhoe in the area, but not a worker to be found at 3 in the afternoon.
Acknowledging the accidents at the Bunkanchanaram and Numan intersections, the mayor promised to assign more traffic officers to control traffic and prevent collisions. But he also implored people to drive more carefully.
The mayor was less forthcoming, however, about when construction finally will be done, offering no estimate on completion.
