The heavy machinery was back at work on Pattaya Beach 14 months after a 166-million-baht facelift was halted a day after it began.
Nong Nooch Landscape & Garden Design Co. got back to work Oct. 27 on the project it began in August 2021. Plans originally called for widening of the entire stretch of Beach Road, the addition of 700 parking spaces, construction of new underground restrooms, more recreational areas and better lighting, along with planting of new trees along both sides of the road.
But 24 hours after crews from Nong Nooch, which also was the lead contractor for Jomtien Beach’s 600-million-baht renovation, began cutting and removing large trees with heavy machinery, a group of influential Thais staged a protest that resulted in the project’s year-plus hiatus.
The demonstrators complained that the renovation destroyed Pattaya’s signature beachfront look, even though the plan calls for new trees and lush plants, flowers and bushes to replace the single trees removed.
Then-mayor Sonthaya Kunplome at first tried to brush off the tree huggers, saying the sea almonds removed were nothing special and most were only 10 years old at most. Besides, they would be replaced with better foliage, but he ended up caving to the pressure.
The new plan, which Nong Nooch agreed to at the same price, now will see only Beach Road from the Dusit Curve to Soi 4 widened, with the footpath cut two meters and trees removed. That means the improved Beach Road will get only 200 more parking spaces, not 700.
Pattaya also agreed not to remove the few large and decades-old sea almond trees.
And, offering a fig leaf to the tree huggers, the city agreed to uproot and replant the displaced trees at the Eastern National Indoor Sports Stadium instead of turning them into mulch.
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