The plaudits came during an official opening speech delivered inside the tunnel by Phuket Vice Governor Teera Anantaseriwidhya at 7am today (Dec 20).
Meanwhile, while traffic backed up on the surface roads at the busy intersection above as the northbound lanes through the underpass had been closed since 10pm last night to accommodate the ceremony.
“We want to congratulate the Phuket Highways Office, who was in charge of the Samkong Underpass construction and completed this project for the public to help solve traffic problems on the island,” said V/Gov Teera.
“We also hope that the construction of the underpasses at the Bang Khu Intersection, Chalong Circle and at the airport turnoff will finished by 2017 and 2018,” he added.
The official opening began early this morning with Buddhist and Islamic blessing ceremonies performed. In addition to the official speeches made, the ensemble of officials present sang the national anthem as well as the Royal Anthem to honour the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away on October 13.
The opening ceremony today came after Highways Dept officials confirmed in October that no such ceremony after so many delays had forced the underpass to open 18 months late.
“We will have no opening ceremony whatsoever. What’s the point? The road is already open for the public to use and I do not want to hear any more criticism about this project,” Project Engineer Chalermpon Wongkietkun of the Phuket Highways Office, who was assigned to oversee the project.
“It’s has been a long and tough time for us working on this project. To have another public announcement or opening ceremony would be a disgrace,” he told The Phuket News. (See story here.)
Contractor Vivat Construction Co Ltd, which built the underpass with a government budget of B834 million, now faces fines totalling at least B570mn for breach of contract late completion.
Mr Chalermpon has since transferred out of Phuket and is now a Project Engineer with the Highways Dept office in Songkhla province. (See story here.)