PHUKET: A traffic crunch is coming for Phuket with a new bottleneck already imposing an enforced slow-down and work on Phuket's second underpass due to begin within weeks.
Highways Department officials admit that conditions on Phuket's roads will grow a whole lot worse before they get better because of the two big digs.
But Central Festival Phuket, now cut off from its sister Central Festival East (aka HomeWorks) by the demolition of a pedestrian bridge, is fighting back.
A new walkers' footbridge, free from central support - in the engineering sense - is being designed and could even be erected and walking before the Central Festival intersection underpass is completed below it.
The next phase in the huge underpass - Phuket's first - has extended the construction zone south of the intersection, with the loss of lanes on either side of Chao Fa Road West.
As a result, the loss of two of the six lanes south of Central Festival has generated larger, longer bottlenecks flowing north and south.
Added delays are expected when construction begins on the second underpass, a kilometre or so further north at the Tesco Lotus intersection.
''Construction will begin at the latest in May,'' Highways Department chief Samak Lerdwonghut said yesterday.
Traffic consultants are still figuring out ways of alleviating the Phuket pain.
These two intersections absorb more vehicles daily, around the clock going east-west and north-south than any other parts of Phuket.
''About 10 percent of the work has been done at the Central Festival intersection,'' Khun Samak said. That may not bring much joy to motorists once they learn that the second underpass is about to begin a little further north.
The finishing date for the Central Festival underpass remains October 2014, with the Tesco Lotus underpass also given a 720 day timetable to completion once the next big dig begins.
Highways Department officials admit that conditions on Phuket's roads will grow a whole lot worse before they get better because of the two big digs.
But Central Festival Phuket, now cut off from its sister Central Festival East (aka HomeWorks) by the demolition of a pedestrian bridge, is fighting back.
A new walkers' footbridge, free from central support - in the engineering sense - is being designed and could even be erected and walking before the Central Festival intersection underpass is completed below it.
The next phase in the huge underpass - Phuket's first - has extended the construction zone south of the intersection, with the loss of lanes on either side of Chao Fa Road West.
As a result, the loss of two of the six lanes south of Central Festival has generated larger, longer bottlenecks flowing north and south.
Added delays are expected when construction begins on the second underpass, a kilometre or so further north at the Tesco Lotus intersection.
''Construction will begin at the latest in May,'' Highways Department chief Samak Lerdwonghut said yesterday.
Traffic consultants are still figuring out ways of alleviating the Phuket pain.
These two intersections absorb more vehicles daily, around the clock going east-west and north-south than any other parts of Phuket.
''About 10 percent of the work has been done at the Central Festival intersection,'' Khun Samak said. That may not bring much joy to motorists once they learn that the second underpass is about to begin a little further north.
The finishing date for the Central Festival underpass remains October 2014, with the Tesco Lotus underpass also given a 720 day timetable to completion once the next big dig begins.
"a 720 timetable" means a construction time of 720 days? Guess I will make my helicopter license sooner than planned :-)
Posted by Fritz Pinguin on March 28, 2013 10:07
Editor Comment:
It also means we left out the word ''day.''