Samkong Underpass opens Sunday, not completely finished until July

PHUKET: The northbound lane of the long-awaited Samkong Underpass will be open to traffic on Sunday, confirmed the project engineer today.

“Northbound motorists will have to use the underpass as the construction company works on the road surface of the northbound, ground-level roadway,” explained Chalermpol Wongkiattikun, the project engineer from the Department of Highways.

Just last week, Boon Tapanadul from the Bangkok Ombudsman’s Office was told that the more than 800-million-baht project would be fully operational by May (story here). However, as part of a seemingly never ending string of delays, the Phuket Gazette learned today that the project would not be finished until the end of July, more than a year behind schedule.

After three contractually acceptable push-backs of the completion date, Wiwat Construction Co Ltd was given a December 21, 2015 completion date before a daily fine of two million baht was to be levied. However, due to mandatory closure during the New Year holidays, a 30-day grace period was granted, further pushing the date to January 22 (story here).

The project has been marred with mishaps, as rough road surfaces caused numerous accidents, eventually forcing local residents to fix dangerous sections of the road surface themselves after officials and the construction company failed to act (story here).

“By July 31, all of the underpass construction will be wrapped up. I updated Phuket officials in a meeting yesterday,” said Mr Chalermpol.

— Chutharat Plerin