Phuket Highways Office Chief Samak Luadwonghat in a notice announcing the daytime closure of the tunnel apologised for the inconvenience.
The Chalong Underpass was closed during the same daylight hours for two weeks in August to allow highways officers to conduct a regular six-month maintenance checkup.
“Officers will work on examining and fixing electricity generators, water pumps and other electricity-related systems inside the underpass,” Mr Samak explained at the time.
“We need to check the system thoroughly and even check every light bulb in the tunnel, so we can change and fix the broken ones,” he said.
“We have specifically avoided the rush hours. To explain why our officers do not conduct the work at night, we need sunlight when we shut down the lights in the tunnel. This helps our officers to do the work more easily,” Mr Samak explained.
“However, I do apologise for any inconvenience happening during the closure, we will try to finish the work earlier than the deadline,” he concluded.