Nearly a year after public restrooms were supposed to open at Bali Hai Pier, Pattaya City Hall said it will likely cancel the contract and start over.
Pattaya officials said in March last year that the 32 stalls for men, women and disabled people were set for completion by the end of April 2022. But work stopped with the job just 30% done, the work site was walled up with ugly metal sheets and the contractor abandoned the job.
Deputy Mayor Manote Nongyai told the Pattaya City Council March 1 that the city had extended the contract three times due to Covid-19 and problems with plumbing and the pier building’s foundation, but there still has been no progress.
The Engineering Department, Manote said, will cancel the contract, which was due to expire this month anyway.
The city council originally allocated 5 million baht for the project, but, after the delays, the contractor agreed to do the job for 1.5 million baht, Manote said. Further, the contractor didn’t charge the city for extra work on the roof and sewer improvements.
But, apparently, the contractor gave up the job as it was a money-loser for the company.
The restroom project began in January 2019 after an online fury over brand-new, never-used public restrooms in the Bali Hai Service Center, a white elephant of a building built for the International Fleet Show in 2017 and never opened.
Pattaya has now torn down much of that building and debated opening the restrooms to the public, but never did.
