To alleviate Sukhumvit tunnel congestion
The Highway Police have proposed drastically changing the way traffic flows through East Pattaya in order to mitigate the expected traffic nightmare that will unfold once construction begins on a bypass-tunnel under Sukhumvit Road.
Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh chaired the Nov. 19 meeting with representatives from the Pattaya, Banglamung, Nongprue and Huay Yai police stations, plus Highway Police and Department of Transport officials.
Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh has his hands full trying to come up with agreeable solutions to the impending traffic nightmare expected to unfold once construction begins on the Sukhumvit bypass-tunnel.
The project is expected to break ground in January and take nearly three years. To begin, one lane on each side of Sukhumvit will be closed for 1.9 kilometers.
The Highway Police suggested running more traffic down the railway-parallel road and turning four sois – Siam Country Club, Nernplabwan, Khao Noi and Khao Talo – into one way thoroughfares.
Traffic would be allowed to turn off of Sukhumvit onto Siam Country Club and Nernplabwan and head toward the railway road. Sois Khao Noi and Khao Talo would run the opposite direction, with traffic running from the railway to Sukhumvit.
Community members debated the idea for three hours, with most local officials opposing the idea as confusing.
Pattaya City Councilman Sanit Boonmachai said the one-way idea seemed excessive and that properly regulating parking on both Sukhumvit and the railway road would be enough to offset construction-related congestion. He noted illegal parking also was rampant on the four sois proposed for one-way traffic.
“If traffic police can just regulate parking on Sukhumvit Road while the road is under construction, then we don’t have to change the four sois, which are extremely busy already,” he said. “That would make locals in the area happy and let them use the roads as they normally do. We also wouldn’t have to use as many traffic police officers to control traffic and we don’t have to spend a huge budget to re-do road painting and put up one-way signs.
“It would be much easier to prevent people from parking on Sukhumvit Road as well as in the four sois concerned and we won’t have to go through all the hassle to confuse people,” Sanit said.
Ronakit disagreed with the suggestion that changing traffic flow was confusing and said authorities will meet again before making a decision.
