Pattaya's mayor, Mr Poramase Ngampiches, has announced significant progress on a major infrastructure project aimed at relocating the city's power lines underground. With a whopping budget of 3.1 billion baht, the project is set to improve the city's aesthetics and resident safety.

 

The initiative involves burying power lines, moving high-voltage overhead lines underground, reordering power cables, and laying down communication infrastructure. The work spans nine crucial routes, covering a total of 20 kilometres within Pattaya.

 

Selected as one of the four pilot cities by the Thai Cabinet back in 2017, Pattaya aims to relocate its overhead wires to enhance the city's image and improve the quality of life for its residents. This ambitious undertaking is being rolled out in three phases, targeting several key areas.

 

 

 

The designated routes include Pattaya North Road, Pattaya Central Road, Sukhumvit Road, Pattaya One Road, Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya Third Road, Soi Buakhao, and two sections of Pattaya South Road. These locations have been identified due to their high visibility and importance to the city's infrastructure.

 

Mr Poramase highlighted that the project would not only provide a more visually appealing skyline but also reduce the risks associated with overhead lines, such as weather-related damage and electrical hazards. The improved infrastructure is expected to support future technological advancements and smart city initiatives, giving Pattaya a competitive edge.

 

Once completed, Pattaya is set to shine brighter—both literally and figuratively—offering residents and visitors a safer, more modern environment. The success of this project could pave the way for similar initiatives in other Thai cities, showcasing how thoughtful urban planning can uplift entire communities.

 

Picture courtesy: Thai Rath

 

-- 2024-05-30

 

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Oh joy they will dig up every road in Pattaya. Don't expect to drive anywhere for the next 5 years,

Pattaya begins? Been going on for years already.

25 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Oh joy they will dig up every road in Pattaya. Don't expect to drive anywhere for the next 5 years,

Yes, short story is... 'We are digging up all the roads again'........

Tie this in with increased tourist numbers and we can expect some serous traffic issues. 

The Netizens will have a lot to say about this - lol

4 hours ago, Henryford said:

Oh joy they will dig up every road in Pattaya. Don't expect to drive anywhere for the next 5 years,

yes, but just think how it will "enhance the city's image and improve the quality of life for its residents."

Maybe not in your lifetime, but sometime in the indefinite future....

They have already done Pattaya Nua (North) Rd.

ow dear not MORE  road works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They were digging up Pattaya Beach Road to hide the cables when I first moved here back in 2004. Glaciers move faster than City Hall and this project to beautify the city, probably says something about their priorities, lol.

I will be impressed when it is finished

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Pattaya One Road,

I should know but unfortunately have forgotten - where the hell is this road?

6 minutes ago, topt said:

I should know but unfortunately have forgotten - where the hell is this road?

Beach road

<snip>! They approved this in 2017, seven years ago. They couldn't somehow have integrated this with the never-ending torn-up roads that currently plague the city?? 

It's like the perpetual extension of the rent-free Nong Nooch palm tree farm on Beach Road.

 

 

4 hours ago, champers said:

They have already done Pattaya Nua (North) Rd.

And Central Road, (Pattaya Klang)

 

Now, if they had buried the cables in the first place they could have saved 3.1 billion Baht. But then so many later contracts opportunities would have been sacrificed.

Just do it fast please, the result will signify daily life

1% sliced off the top would be nice.....but I imagine the slice will be nearer 20%.

Sukhumvit is a nightmare Klang to North Pattaya road atm, all dug up

How about you finish some of the other road works before starting on this!

 

Just a thought, but maybe take some of these funds and put them into overtime on the Sukhumvit project; seems like they're only working week days 8-5 and no holiday work. Put the project on 24-7, and put more workers on, until it's done. It would be different if it was some small out of the way soi but it's a major thoroughfare!

On 5/30/2024 at 4:45 PM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Now, if they had buried the cables in the first place they could have saved 3.1 billion Baht. But then so many later contracts opportunities would have been sacrificed.

 

But that would have greatly added to the cost of the road construction, unless the same cheap method was used as in the paradise of the UK, the former home of our most educated, highly qualified Engineers. That method has proved suboptimal, however. The life cycles of roads and utilities are rather different, and you get what you pay for.

 

One of the maddest things about our congested road network in the UK is the way the authorities chose to place most of the crucial pipes and cables for water, electricity, gas and telephones under the carriageway and then seal them in under piles of rubble and tarmac. Each time they need to replace or repair expensive roadworks are undertaken, disrupting the highway, increasing the costs of the utility business, and creating tensions between the utility customers as road users and the utility managements.
      --Pipes and cables should not be buried under roads

 

At the time, and later, the ace Electrical, Civil, and Cable Burying Engineers of the authoritative Pattaya Urban Planning Bureau, writing in the Pattaya Mail Mailbag section and later in the forum strongly opposed the idea, no matter that Brit electrocuted in S. Pattaya waddling around in flooded water.

 

The reason was obvious and a forum Known Truth: Thais can’t bury cables. The insulation would rot underground; the entire cable would need to be exhumed to fix any break; rainy season would mean months without power; and flooding would soon expose the cables, leading to mass electrocutions.🤣

 

Similarly, The Bureau experts sneered when the construction of The Tunnel was announced, since Thais can’t build tunnels. They continued fun sniping throughout the years of its construction, complete with Rubber Ducky cartoons. It was never supposed to finished anyway, just as with the cables:

 

On 5/30/2024 at 1:47 PM, Almer said:

I will be impressed when it is finished

 

We All Know that construction in Pattaya is just to line certain pockets.

 

However, most of our ace Engineers have already jumped off the balconies of their flophouses in Soi Buakhao after learning of the successes of the Tunnel construction and of cable burying projects on Beach Rd., Walking St., Pattaya Nua and Klang. Posting is so much less fun now. The remaining lesser Experts have contented themselves with sneering that only the power lines were buried, not others such as internet cables.

 

Therefore. the burying can now continue, except for the complaint is that it’s supposed to be accomplished with no disruptions whatsoever. Yet the most recent disruptions on Nua and Klang for burying cables wasn't so bad. Not really the same as for laying huge drainage pipes.