With Pattaya’s 170-million-baht installation of three new drainage pipelines having proved a failure at solving Beach Road flooding problems, the city has decided to construct three new culverts to let the storm runoff drain faster – and untreated – into the ocean.
Work on three new concrete-sided tunnels began June 6 near the intersections of sois 9 and 10, and in front of Central Festival Pattaya Beach. The plan is to have water pouring onto Beach Road from higher elevations wash into the culverts, under the beachfront footpath, through the sand and into sea.
The water, polluted by sewage backups and garbage from higher elevations, will enter the sea without being funneled through the city’s water-treatment plant.
Phuthiset Charoenpoj, maintenance chief for the Engineering Department, led a team of workers to start the excavation for the culverts at the beachfront mall June 6. They will be five meters long and six-meters wide and lined with cement. The footpath will be dug up and then resurfaced with reinforced concrete to allow water to pass underneath.
In the past year, Pattaya spent 170 million baht to install three huge drainage pipes at the Dusit Curve, Soi 6, and near Walking Street. But even short rainstorms since their completion have shown the pricey pipes are unable to solve Beach Road’s chronic flooding problem.
Work was expected to finish within a few days.
