Pattaya's Sukhumvit Tunnel - Behind Schedule

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According to a PATTAYA MAIL article, the Sukhumvit tunnel is barely half complete and is also behind schedule. For me, no surprise. Originally the construction was to take 3 years. At the time I said if they're telling us 3 years, then I expect it to take at least 5 years. It may turn out that I was not all that far from wrong.

To this day I still don't know what purpose this tunnel is going to serve and I don't know why it is being built at the Pattaya Klang intersection in the first place. That's not where the serious traffic problems were. It would have made at least some sense to me if it was being built to bypass both the Pattaya Tai and Thepprasit Road intersections. During heavy traffic times both of those intersections are traffic nightmares. It also makes no sense to me that the bypass is being built as a tunnel rather than an overpass, as is done in Bangkok - at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time it takes to complete the construction. Why is my "I Don't Get It" list coming to mind?

Nevertheless, there it is. So far it's done a magnificent job of creating serious long term traffic problems on Sukhumvit. Once it is complete and open, I don't see how it is going to solve a thing. Maybe it will, but I can also imagine it very well might create more problems than had existed to start with.

Click the link for the article and photos of the interior of the tunnel so far:

http://www.pattayamail.com/featured/pat ... ted-144375

Not long ago news articles were published that said bridges were going to be installed at the heavy traffic intersections along the railroad bypass road. Anyone see any signs of bridge construction? That would be nice and it would also be nice to widen and install more lanes along the bypass road. They did put in traffic lights at those intersections. All those did was create more problems. The lights are still there, but only flash or are merely turned off. I wonder how much money was wasted on them.

They also tried making one way streets out of some of the two way streets on "The Dark Side." That lasted less than a week due to the traffic problems it caused rather than resolved and due to the complaints from business owners. Who comes up with these brilliant ideas that everyone but them seems to know won't work?

I also remember talk about building some sort of "people mover" in Pattaya. Anyone seeing any signs of a "people mover" under construction?

There has also been a lot of talk about doing things to alleviate the traffic problems and parking problems within the city.

Meanwhile, what has actually been done to build a "people mover"? What has actually been done to significantly reduce the traffic problems? What has actually been done to handle the parking problems? What has actually been done to bring the tour bus problems under control?

The answer to each of those questions is very simple - Nothing. What do I expect to be done? Nothing. But don't worry. I'm sure they will continue to do what is typically done to solve these problems - talk about them . . .