Motorists are advised, however, to drive carefully and be sure the underpass is actually open, following a series of conflicting messages in the past 24 hours.
Following the official opening of the Central Festival underpass yesterday (April 6), with not one, but two ministers in attendance, the underpass remained closed to the public.
The Director of the Highways Department in Phuket, Samak Lueduanghad, explained that certain systems needed testing and people could expect to start driving through it on Thursday or Friday (April 9 or 10).
Local press mocked the “It’s open, but it isn’t” situation and this morning the underpass was open, though northbound only.
Many motorists appeared not to believe it, and crept around it at ground level, despite the presence of a traffic marshall frantically waving people in the direction of the tunnel.
This morning Mr Samak explained, “We have opened northbound and now we are programming the traffic lights for the southbound traffic. I want that to working perfectly and then we will open in that direction, too.”
Somkiet Yimpong, Project Engineer for the underpass, confirmed this and said, “We will open southbound around midday today.”
Meanwhile, Chalermpol Wongkiattikun, the project engineer for the Samkong underpass, which is still under construction, told The Phuket News that that project is on target to open in November this year. Until then, the current traffic flow will stay in use.
“The traffic police have told us they think the underpass should be finished first before the intersection is opened. That will happen about November this year.”