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[webfact]

Chalong Circle closed to turns from early next month

The Phuket News

 

Workers continue at the Chalong Underpass construction site. Photo: Highways Dept

 

PHUKET: Motorists will no longer be able to make turns at Chalong Circle starting early next month while workers continue their excavation of the Chalong Underpass under the busy five-way intersection.

 

Somkiet Yimpong, Project Manager at the Phuket office of the Highways Department, revealed the news at meeting with Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong earlier today (May 22).

 

Mr Somkiet explained to Governor Norraphat that Chalong Circle will not be closed to turns until workers have completed widening the traffic lanes past the construction site, as ordered by Gov Norraphat himself last month.

 

Source: https://www.thephuketnews.com/chalong-circle-closed-to-turns-from-early-next-month-67209.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2018-05-23

[huuwi]

I'm looking forward to that........

[stevenl]

Not sure I can believe this. This will lead to hours long jams from all directions.

[stevenl]

Sounds to me they are simply copying what they did at the other underpass constructions. Chalong circle though is different, this will not work but be a disaster.

[stevenl]

After thinking about it a bit more, it is probably going to be unsafe to have traffic there while they're digging the part underneath the circle itself.

But this will finally be the disaster that was expected for quite some time already.

[inThailand]

Motorists will no longer be able to make turns at Chalong Circle starting early next month . 

 

What does this actually mean? 

 

Chaofa East heading south from the circle only goes south to Rawai? Left turn to Chalong? Chalong pier road only left to Rawai? 

Chaofa West heading south from the circle can only turn right to Kata? And vise vesa? 

Sai Yuan heading north can turn left to Kata or head north on Chaofa West? 

 

I see a complete f... up coming! How many years of this mess must we endure? 

 

 

[stevenl]

11 minutes ago, inThailand said:

Motorists will no longer be able to make turns at Chalong Circle starting early next month . 

 

What does this actually mean? 

 

Chaofa East heading south from the circle only goes south to Rawai? Left turn to Chalong? Chalong pier road only left to Rawai? 

Chaofa West heading south from the circle can only turn right to Kata? And vise vesa? 

Sai Yuan heading north can turn left to Kata or head north on Chaofa West? 

 

I see a complete f... up coming! How many years of this mess must we endure? 

 

 

I think 'just' no traffic above construction.

[steelepulse]

>>>>I see a complete f... up coming! How many years of this mess must we endure?   

 

Well if you believe the original timeframe, the circle is already complete.  If you believe their latest projection, only until Songkran next year.

 

Agree with you inThailand, article ( or the contractor) could perhaps explain which direction each road will be allowed to go.

[chercheur888]

I am sure that lorries and buses will do their u-turn at the indicated locations as they always respect the traffic laws. Dream on.

[stevenl]

51 minutes ago, chercheur888 said:

I am sure that lorries and buses will do their u-turn at the indicated locations as they always respect the traffic laws. Dream on.

At the indicated locations, at least one of them, they can't do the U-turn, even with a pickup I can't do it there. And with traffic backing up till way past that, this will be a disaster. Hope they work 24/7 to limit this to the summer months, but even then it will be no fun.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, steelepulse said:

>>>>I see a complete f... up coming! How many years of this mess must we endure?   

 

Well if you believe the original timeframe, the circle is already complete.  If you believe their latest projection, only until Songkran next year.

 

Agree with you inThailand, article ( or the contractor) could perhaps explain which direction each road will be allowed to go.

From Kata and Rawai onto Chao Fa West, make U-turn. From Chao Fa West and East go everywhere but Kata, so to go there take shortcut past Villa Market.or make U-turn direction Rawai past school or make shortcut past stunt show.

Educated guess.

[Old Croc]

Some have been saying for months (years?) that they would have to have similar U turns as used with the Tesco underpass.

That is what they are planning, but to me, there doesn't seem to be enough width to have dedicated lanes for the maneuver (particularly north). If U turning traffic has to blend in to oncoming traffic it would be disastrous.

 

 

On the plus side the hideous circle is about to be dug up! ?

[LivinginKata]

46 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

Some have been saying for months (years?) that they would have to have similar U turns as used with the Tesco underpass.

That is what they are planning, but to me, there doesn't seem to be enough width to have dedicated lanes for the maneuver (particularly north). If U turning traffic has to blend in to oncoming traffic it would be disastrous.

 

 

On the plus side the hideous circle is about to be dug up! ?

 

I am optimistic about this plan. True that u-turn merging will be a challenge, but cannot be any worse than the circle driving standards which result in grid lock.

 

For me living in Kata going into Phuket easy enough as I always take the Chaofa West turn, and if backed up I take the Home Pro short cut. Coming back I always tend to take the Chaofa East road (as West road usually gridlocked before the HomePro short cut) so I just keep going towards Makro and take the 'stunt' road turn up to Patak Road.

 

[madmitch]

The same company had exactly the same concept at Tesco, so it's not unexpected, but the big difference is the roads are much narrower in Chalong.

 

Sounds horrible, for someone that drives between Patak Road and Chaofa West on a regular basis.

 

They will need the police to control the traffic properly. The Circle should be easy but the u-turn points and the shortcut exits will need manning. But..........

[RedCardinal]

On 5/23/2018 at 12:57 PM, Old Croc said:

That is what they are planning, but to me, there doesn't seem to be enough width to have dedicated lanes for the maneuver (particularly north). If U turning traffic has to blend in to oncoming traffic it would be disastrous.

Not only the width of the lanes, but also the surface.  There's a real problem with cars having to slow down due to the surface, and the reduced speed reduces flow and capacity.  Right now we see the traffic backing up as vehicles cant enter Wiset Road or ChaoFa West off the roundabout quickly enough due to terrible roads surfaces.  When they start forcing all traffic to use these routes things will probably come to a total standstill.

On 5/23/2018 at 1:51 PM, LivinginKata said:

I am optimistic about this plan. True that u-turn merging will be a challenge, but cannot be any worse than the circle driving standards which result in grid lock.

At least now traffic from Kata and ChaoFa East flows pretty well with limited tailbacks, but imagine when you force all that traffic to move onto Wiset and ChaoFa West.  Those roads can barely take the current flow, and they seriously expect them to support current flows plus all other traffic from the roundabout?

 

They could have halved the problem here by only blocking one half of the roundabout at a time until the other half is complete.  Traffic from ChaoFa East bound for Kata, ChaoFa West would need to go down Wiest, but traffic from Kata could have circulated around the roundabout as far as Wiest exist.  Then once the first half of tunnel across circle is complete they could block off the other side, pushing traffic up the Kata road to u-turn if needed (which has far more space for this).

 

I reckon we're going to see the worst traffic snarl-ups ever.  As someone living in Rawai without alternative routes to travel I'm not at all looking forward to this.

[LivinginKata]

30 minutes ago, RedCardinal said:

<snip>

They could have halved the problem here by only blocking one half of the roundabout at a time until the other half is complete.  Traffic from ChaoFa East bound for Kata, ChaoFa West would need to go down Wiest, but traffic from Kata could have circulated around the roundabout as far as Wiest exist.  Then once the first half of tunnel across circle is complete they could block off the other side, pushing traffic up the Kata road to u-turn if needed (which has far more space for this).

 

I reckon we're going to see the worst traffic snarl-ups ever.  As someone living in Rawai without alternative routes to travel I'm not at all looking forward to this.

 

Too much of an engineering challenge to 'halve' the tunnel. Best they just get on with it head on.

 

And yes, it's going to be a monster of a traffic jam for months and months.

[RedCardinal]

2 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

Too much of an engineering challenge to 'halve' the tunnel. Best they just get on with it head on.

I'm not so sure.  They are building the tunnel on both sides currently, and it looks like they lay both the retaining walls and tunnel roof in ~10m stretches.  So I expect this could be completed in 2 stages sequentially across the circle.  Even if it increases the complexity I think it would be worth it to maintain some semblance of traffic flow. 

 

I'm not even sure that what they are proposing to do currently will actually work.  Is there enough space north of HomePro for coaches and trucks to u-turn?  The road simply isn't wide enough at that point, and there's no empty property adjacent to widen it.

 

Given the previous worries about ambulance access, you'd think that there would be some serious concern with this proposed plan...  

[huuwi]

i still not understand why the not finish all the ongoing work, entrance to the tunnel and both sides of the tunnel and only then do the rest.

[huuwi]

i still not understand why the not finish all the ongoing work, entrance to the tunnel and both sides of the tunnel and only then do the rest.

[Valentine]

14 hours ago, RedCardinal said:

I'm not so sure.  They are building the tunnel on both sides currently, and it looks like they lay both the retaining walls and tunnel roof in ~10m stretches.  So I expect this could be completed in 2 stages sequentially across the circle.  Even if it increases the complexity I think it would be worth it to maintain some semblance of traffic flow. 

 

I'm not even sure that what they are proposing to do currently will actually work.  Is there enough space north of HomePro for coaches and trucks to u-turn?  The road simply isn't wide enough at that point, and there's no empty property adjacent to widen it.

 

Given the previous worries about ambulance access, you'd think that there would be some serious concern with this proposed plan...  

They are asking the coaches to turn further north as if asking will make them behave. I can see them trying Soi Thanuthep where they will surely get stuck.

[Old Croc]

For me the jury is still out on whether this system will be better or worse than that currently.

The new U turns will cause problems, but the chaotic monstrosity that was the circle will have traffic flowing freely past it for the first time in decades. Maybe it will improve overall traffic flow as it did with the Tesco underpass..Of course with that one they had space for dedicated lanes for U turns and no coaches trying to get to a pier.

[stevenl]

42 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

For me the jury is still out on whether this system will be better or worse than that currently.

The new U turns will cause problems, but the chaotic monstrosity that was the circle will have traffic flowing freely past it for the first time in decades. Maybe it will improve overall traffic flow as it did with the Tesco underpass..Of course with that one they had space for dedicated lanes for U turns and no coaches trying to get to a pier.

At the moment traffic at the circle is not too bad, except for coming from Chao Fa West. It has been ok for quite some time now, and so far has not been the disaster predicted. I do fear though with these new rules.

Edited May 26, 2018 by stevenl

[Old Croc]

5 minutes ago, stevenl said:

At the moment traffic at the circle is not too bad, except for coming from Chao Fa West. It has been ok for quite some time now, and so far has not been the disaster predicted. I do fear though with these new rules.

I went to Rawai a couple of days ago and noted a long southern tailback. It was enough to send me via the western route on the way home.

[RedCardinal]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

At the moment traffic at the circle is not too bad, except for coming from Chao Fa West. 

It was good for a while, but since they've changed the exits off circle to both Wiset and ChaoFa West to narrow single lanes with poor surfaces it's again starting to back up on both Wiset and ChaoFa W. Not sure if it will be possible to improve these surfaces as there's nowhere to divert traffic.

[Valentine]

19 hours ago, RedCardinal said:

It was good for a while, but since they've changed the exits off circle to both Wiset and ChaoFa West to narrow single lanes with poor surfaces it's again starting to back up on both Wiset and ChaoFa W. Not sure if it will be possible to improve these surfaces as there's nowhere to divert traffic.

The condition of the side roads is absolutely disgraceful especially coming from the circle to Chao Fa West. Just having a smooth surface would help ease the flow.

[Badrabbit]

Let's see how it is once the roundabout is closed, its happening so best to plan your route now to save anger and a massive headache!

 

 

 

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