Phuket Highways Chief Patiwetwoottisak Sookkhee announced this week that the northbound lanes will be closed for the ceremony, to be held on Tuesday, Dec 20.
“We received an order from the Highways Department head office to hold an official opening for Samkong Underpass this month because the project is now complete,” Chief Patiwetwoottisak said.
The event will start with a blessing ceremony from at 6am to 9:30am.
“We will close the northbound lanes only for the ceremony. The southbound lanes will be open as normal on that day so traffic will not back up,” said Chief Patiwetwoottisak.
“Samkong Underpass will reopen to traffic at about 11am after the event is over.”
“We apologise for any inconvenience during this time and please be advised that we will close northbound lanes of the underpass from 10pm Dec 19 so we can prepare the area for the ceremony.”
The plague of problems encountered during construction – including flooding, a road collapse and workers having to move water mains pipes that the construction teams apparently were not informed of – forced back the completion date time and again.
At last report, Vivat Construction Co Ltd, the contractor tasked with building the Samkong Underpass and now beginning construction of the Chalong Underpass, stood to be fined some B570 million for the late completion.
The nightmare project saw Phuket Highways Office Project Engineer Chalermpon Wongkietkun, who was tasked with overseeing the construction, resigning his post in Phuket. (See story here.)
Speaking to The Phuket News from his new post in Songkhla, Mr Chalermpon explained, “The concept behind this grand opening, from the Bureau of Bridges Construction of the Department of Rural Roads, which operates under the Highways Department, is to give this underpass to the people of Phuket as a New Year’s gift.”
Life is better for him in Songkhla, he added.
“My life is better than it's ever been. I am still involved in highways construction, but I no longer feel like I am stuck in a never-ending loop of suffering,” he said.