Pattaya has demanded that the contractor for its long-running Pratamnak Hill drainage-system project pay 90 million baht in fines over the 80-day construction delay.
Sanitation Engineering Department chief Anuwat Thongkum told Pattaya City Council members that the contractor has appealed the fine, blaming delays on government-imposed coronavirus restricting limiting the movement of migrant laborers needed to work on the project.
Councilmen Chakorn Kanjawattana, Thanet Supornsahatrangsi and Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn inspected the mostly completed project that runs down Pratamnak Hill to Cozy Beach March 2. While the laying of large drainage pipes is complete and the road reopened to traffic, the road’s concrete paving is substandard, the councilmen complained, both uneven and already starting to peel.
The 93-million-baht project was begun in June 2018 and was slated for delivery to the city on Jan. 13 this year. But work was delayed by 80 days during the two Covid-19 outbreaks.
The drainage system now takes flood-runoff and sewage in different pipes from Pratamnak Hill to pumps near the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, which sends water and sewage to a sewage-treatment plant in Jomtien Beach and dumped into the wastewater treatment pond on Soi Wat Boonkanchanaram.
The contract allowed for fines of 16.8 million baht a day, capped at 90 million baht, nearly the entire cost of the project.
The contractor is now trying to negotiate down the total fines.
