With the Pattaya’s massive beach-restoration project in prolonged limbo, the city has deployed work crews at night for emergency patch jobs so that military leaders from Thailand’s neighbors don’t arrive for this month’s international fleet show to see a beach pockmarked by erosion.
Pattaya spokesman Pinit Maneerat said city hall issued urgent orders to refill spots left barren of sand by recent storms so the beach looks presentable for the international dignitaries.
He said the work stared at Soi 1 and will continue to the southern end, filling in holes where needed. The work will be done at night so as not to inconvenience tourists, Pinit said.
The patch job is a stop-gap measure that may make the beach look decent this month, but will do nothing to counter serious erosion that could wipe out all of Pattaya Beach in a few short years.
Pattaya launched a 429-million-baht project to refill and widen Pattaya Beach in 2011, but has never made it past the Dusit Curve and is on indefinite hold.
