In September last year, then Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada confirmed that the Highways Department had decided on the route the planned 12-lane expressway from Koh Kaew to Phuket International Airport costing B5.5 billion would take.
Ex-Gov Chamroen announced the route at a public meeting held at Phuket Rajabhat University on Sept 6, 2016. (See story here.)
Speaking during the site visit on Saturday (June 10), Gov Norraphat said, “Construction of this new expressway has already been approved following four public hearings. The project is now going through its environmental impact assessment (EIA) which should be finished in July.
“Once the EIA is received there will be the post-EIA meeting where the results will be presented to the Bureau of Policy and Planning and National Environment Board. When the construction of this expressway is finished, it will mitigate some of the the traffic problems in Phuket,” Governor Norraphat said.
Gov Norraphat also told reporters, “Construction of the light rail system will require space the road’s central reservations and to allow the light rail system the roads must be six metres wide. Therefore, if there is no additional route for traffic to take while construction of the light rail is ongoing then the traffic in Phuket will be chaos.
“The central government is willing to develop Phuket’s transportation infrastructure to make it more efficient by solving the traffic problems for the citizens’ convenience,” he added.
There has been delays in the construction of the new expressway due to certain parts of the road falling within conserved forest areas, but during Gov Norraphat’s meeting with the Phuket Highways Department District he stated that construction has been ordered by the government as it is required to mitigate traffic jams.
“The construction of Sakoo-Kor Kaew expressway was meant to be finished before starting construction of the light rail, however, some obstacles were out of the control of Phuket Highways Department such as the EIA which requires involvement of national institutes,” he said.
Mr Ekkasit Sirivaitayapong, an engineer from the Department of Highways added that the Sakoo-Koh Kaew expressway is a convenient and safe route which will run parallel with villages around the area and will feature a bicycle lane and decorations unique to ‘Phuketness’.