Bangkok to Ban Chang motorway a "boon for tourism" - set to open in 2020

[observer90210]

Also a boon for the funeral planners !

[mikebell]

12 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Excuse us but this is the "stupid waste of time and money Ban Chang motorway to nowhere" thread. Please feel free to start your own "stupid waste of time and money Ban Amphur dual-carriageway resurfacing" thread elsewhere at your leisure.

This is taking place where the new Ban Chang motorway joins Sukhumvit road, the principal road to Ban Chang.  A little local knowledge would prove the pertinence of my comment, don't you think?

[mikebell]

18 hours ago, johng said:

22 hours ago, mikebell said:

In the meantime traffic in Baan Amphur continues to wreak havoc on travel times; the numpties are attempting, after MONTHS of inactivity, to asphalt a huge stretch.  ineffectual police flap their arms about to make drivers go faster or set up bandit-blocks to take advantage of the situation/stranded motorists!

On Friday this caused a very long traffic jam almost all the way back to the Wat Na-Jomtien traffic lights...took me 30 mins to get from Alangkarn to the Bahn amphur lights.

Agreed - see Nanlaew's irrelevant comment.

[longball53098]

This new motorway extension will prove a big plus when the new Utapao airport opens  in 5 to 10 years. And for the comments of the road to nowhere the new Ban Chang extension is planned to continue over Suk and run down parallel to the present railroad line all the way to Maptahphut. There will not be any link to the bypass road that I ever heard about. You can see the overhead roadway under construction now that will be the last piece. The entry and exits to Suk east and west are almost completed

[steve187]

34 minutes ago, longball53098 said:

This new motorway extension will prove a big plus when the new Utapao airport opens  in 5 to 10 years. And for the comments of the road to nowhere the new Ban Chang extension is planned to continue over Suk and run down parallel to the present railroad line all the way to Maptahphut. There will not be any link to the bypass road that I ever heard about. You can see the overhead roadway under construction now that will be the last piece. The entry and exits to Suk east and west are almost completed

so you are saying a new road will be built all the way to mataphut, and that the new higher level flyover being built will connect to that road and not the existing bypass road. do you have a map/plan of that new road

[cookieqw]

On 11/11/2018 at 12:25 AM, a977 said:

Leave the Darkside out of this, us mere mortals are quite happy living a peaceful life over here, Oh and by the way the street lights now work so you can find your way home (now called the lightside)

yeah but you have sculptured lights very up market,  and you cant deny the road is there

[dotpoom]

On 11/10/2018 at 4:16 PM, NanLaew said:

Talk about a road to nowhere.

"A road to nowhere"?

Banchang has some of the finest beaches in Thailand. ..."Nam Rin" beach..."Payon" beach .."Phala" beach...just three of them 

Beautiful lit up restaurants on these beaches. Lots of visitors at the W/E's already. Plenty of nice hotels in these areas along with other types of accomodation.

  I cannot think of a more relaxing "getaway" for the folk from BKK ..and now the trip will be made so much easier with this new Motorway.

   The knockers of "Everything Thai" should look in a different direction from this particular one.

[cookieqw]

ban chang bars were good ---

-- 

[longball53098]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

so you are saying a new road will be built all the way to mataphut, and that the new higher level flyover being built will connect to that road and not the existing bypass road. do you have a map/plan of that new road

Yes that is what I am saying. No I cannot prove this as it was from local discussions from some business owners near the railroad tracks that say this is what is going to be. Just to add if you look at the bypass road and any potential connections to the motorway there does not seem to be any work being done to make that happen currently. Just have to wait and see what really shakes out next year. Won't be long and we will all know for sure. As I live down in Phala I welcome the new access to Pattaya and points north without negotiating the 331/36 roads.

[steve187]

2 hours ago, longball53098 said:

Yes that is what I am saying. No I cannot prove this as it was from local discussions from some business owners near the railroad tracks that say this is what is going to be. Just to add if you look at the bypass road and any potential connections to the motorway there does not seem to be any work being done to make that happen currently. Just have to wait and see what really shakes out next year. Won't be long and we will all know for sure. As I live down in Phala I welcome the new access to Pattaya and points north without negotiating the 331/36 roads.

i assumed the flyover would connect to the by pass, following the rail tracks will involve crossing many roads, whereas linking to the bypass road would only require a short road, where there is empty land at the moment.

[CGW]

If only they had finished the elevated Bang Na express-way, highway three was originally supposed to span Sukhumvit all the way to Rayong, but corruption put paid to that idea, back then folks were corrupt and proud of it, there was no need to hide! 

[Toosetinmyways]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

i assumed the flyover would connect to the by pass, following the rail tracks will involve crossing many roads, whereas linking to the bypass road would only require a short road, where there is empty land at the moment.

According to a model I saw years ago it showed an elevated road above the railway all the way to Mapaphut crossing Sukhumvit. If it is going to be a true motorway (to Mapaphut) using the bypass road they would need a frontage road along both side to accommodate access, and flyovers at every junction. You can not see them now but they sank piles along the railway line to about half way along the dirt road.

If the Sukhumvit crossing construction is anything to go by, it should be open around 2030. Five months to span 100 yards

 

According to farang civil engineers I knew, the reason the Bang na trat expressway was never finished was that the contractor was never paid. Same as the Don Muang tollway.

[LennyW]

6 hours ago, steve187 said:

so you are saying a new road will be built all the way to mataphut, and that the new higher level flyover being built will connect to that road and not the existing bypass road. do you have a map/plan of that new road

This is correct as you can see by the attached. The 1035 is the current bypass road, as mentioned the proposed new part travels alongside the railway.

[LennyW]

And of course we have Big C and Makro coming to Ban Chang in the new year, ......but that's another story!!

[Bournville]

"I see dead people"

[LazySlipper]

On 11/10/2018 at 4:16 PM, NanLaew said:

Talk about a road to nowhere.

Have to disagree with you.

Banchang is actually booming. Construction is non stop. Town houses going up everywhere. Traffic is actually getting worse by the week, early in the morning and even worse by 4 pm. I actually think they did the right thing building this motorway and I hope it makes my life easier...

[Scottjouro]

57 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

Have to disagree with you.

Banchang is actually booming. Construction is non stop. Town houses going up everywhere. Traffic is actually getting worse by the week, early in the morning and even worse by 4 pm. I actually think they did the right thing building this motorway and I hope it makes my life easier...

Ban Chang used to be a nice little town with professional expats involved in Maptuphut and the offshore oil and gas types, but these says seems to be filling up with whinging Pattaya reject pensioner types, so the neighbourhood appears to have gone down quite a bit IMHO 

[steve187]

2 hours ago, LennyW said:

This is correct as you can see by the attached. The 1035 is the current bypass road, as mentioned the proposed new part travels alongside the railway.

seems to end at the phala road

[sungod]

On 11/10/2018 at 7:58 PM, steve187 said:

actually it will be turn right for U Tapao as well, straight on will be mataphut

Turn right then left for Utapao if we are going down the pedantic route ????

[steve187]

1 hour ago, sungod said:

Turn right then left for Utapao if we are going down the pedantic route ????

if you are going to be pedantic, there is then another left'

 

i wasn't be pedantic i was being accurate.

[NanLaew]

14 hours ago, Scottjouro said:

Ban Chang used to be a nice little town with professional expats involved in Maptuphut and the offshore oil and gas types, but these says seems to be filling up with whinging Pattaya reject pensioner types, so the neighbourhood appears to have gone down quite a bit IMHO 

Since when has oil field trash ever had any social caché?

[NanLaew]

23 hours ago, mikebell said:

This is taking place where the new Ban Chang motorway joins Sukhumvit road, the principal road to Ban Chang.  A little local knowledge would prove the pertinence of my comment, don't you think?

It's not the Ban Chang motorway, it's a feeder to it.

 

23 hours ago, mikebell said:

Agreed - see Nanlaew's irrelevant comment.

The irrelevancy is moaning about road resurfacing in the bit circled in red on the appended map. I think we can agree that ANY road resurfacing ANYWHERE on Sukhumvit Highway 3 is a pain in the bum. But if blaming it on the new motorway makes you feel better, have at it.

 

[LennyW]

15 hours ago, Scottjouro said:

Ban Chang used to be a nice little town with professional expats involved in Maptuphut and the offshore oil and gas types, but these says seems to be filling up with whinging Pattaya reject pensioner types, so the neighbourhood appears to have gone down quite a bit IMHO 

Currently there is a large influx and investment from the Japanese and Korean contingent, many shops, massage places and restaurants have sprung up to cater for them.

With the busy night clubs and restaurants on the bypass road it is thriving at nights, yeah, not the same types as previously filled the town, but much busier now than in previous years. 

Most of the restaurants, action and entertainment these days is between Sukhumvit and the beach, the strip of bars that was previously a bustling area is just a shadow of what it was, there is a couple of bars do well because the owners work hard at them, the rest are overcome with greed and infighting.

I guess it all depends on which parts of the town you frequent, but it is growing and thriving rapidly right now, things change for sure, of course anyone who does not actually know the town and uses the faded bar street as a gauge will not see or understand this.

Edited November 13, 2018 by LennyW

[NanLaew]

15 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

Have to disagree with you.

Banchang is actually booming. Construction is non stop. Town houses going up everywhere. Traffic is actually getting worse by the week, early in the morning and even worse by 4 pm. I actually think they did the right thing building this motorway and I hope it makes my life easier...

My 'road to nowhere' comment was not serious and the immediately preceding sentence in that post referencing the few bars there should have been a clue.

 

Isn't is funny how farangs in disparate locations in LOS tend to get all het up when their own bit of paradise is called in disparaging terms? The Pattaya denizens (the ones that haven't invaded the Ban Chang environs yet) typically have a thicker skin but them camping in the 'burbs maybe less so?

[LazySlipper]

14 hours ago, Scottjouro said:

Ban Chang used to be a nice little town with professional expats involved in Maptuphut and the offshore oil and gas types, but these says seems to be filling up with whinging Pattaya reject pensioner types, so the neighbourhood appears to have gone down quite a bit IMHO 

 

Actually the red light district (single street with less than 200 metres of bars) doesn't seem to be doing so well. Seems like a few of the bars are closed and not set to open any time soon. The reject pensioners have always been there and there are less and less of the professional expats living there because most of the construction that involved professional foreigners is now over and the petrol companies have given the jobs to Thai nationals, for the most part.

 

Judging by the number of town houses being built and sold it is unlikely that rich well to do foreigners are buying them up because foreigners simply can't own town houses and Big Joke is making it more and more difficult to set up bogus companies to allow us to buy houses.

 

The money has shifted in Rayong and IMHO the Thais who think that falang are rich need to start looking to their own brethren cos a lot of them are now earning 100 000+ a month working for petrol companies like PTT...

 

So, if you think the neighborhood has gone down it is not because the expats have left, but rather because there is more new Thai money popping up.

[LazySlipper]

8 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Isn't is funny how farangs in disparate locations in LOS tend to get all het up when their own bit of paradise is called in disparaging terms?

Not really. Seems like you are a bit of a keyboard warrior who confuses putting the facts straight with having a hissy fit.

I am only a guest here and I have long ago learned not to get too attached to Thailand seeing how it is very easy for the Thais to ask us to leave at their leisure.

[Toosetinmyways]

The idea that the Ban Chang motorway will bring an increase in tourism I would use this as an example.

One of the tourist "attractions" of Ban Chang must be Eastern Star golf course.

This year they have totally rebuild the interior of the clubhouse, improved the course, converted two service apartment blocks to hotels, converted one block from three to one bedroom apartments and many other improvements.

Perhaps management thinks that Bangkokians will bypass Pattaya and carry on to Ban Chang.

This is a course that in 27 years has had nothing spent on it and has made a loss every year. (From golf)

 

Passed the construction in Ban Chang today and there are about six or seven completed pillars parallel to the railway line.

Probably they will finish the route to Ban Chang first then start the leg to Maphaput.

[CharlieH]

Inflammatory remark removed.

[NanLaew]

6 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

... I am only a guest here and I have long ago learned not to get too attached to Thailand seeing how it is very easy for the Thais to ask us to leave at their leisure.

My sentiments entirely. The foreigners that say they love this place must have been really unloved back home.

 

[bowerboy]

The last time Ban Chang and surrounding area saw so much activity and investment was right before the Tom Yung Gung financial crisis.....

 

Town Houses popping up everywhere (and I do mean everhwere), new housing estates faster than you can count, medoicre houses on Eastern Star for essentially the same price as prime Melbourne Rental prices...new car dealerships popping up everywhere...

 

Motorways and road infrastutructure being built, large hotels being built....Thai Baht very strong.

 

This is either going to be a economical miracle and the perfect execution of a developmental masterpiece....or all that motorway will be unfinished, the buildings will all be empty and the wheels will come off the train.

 

i do genuinely believe we are at a crossroads now where things could go either way...given Thai history and what my observations of the Thai are I personally think all of this will end with empty buildings and unfinished motorways.

 

i mean really...what new industry or new plans are there to fund all this in Ban Chang...where will all the people be coming from and what exactly will they be doing when they get here?