Muni Projects Done Well.

[NaiGreg]

I just want to say how impressed I am with some of the more controversial municipal projects around here, large and small.

Now I'm no engineer (actually, I really am an engineer but it sounds quaint to deny it) but I'd say that the improvements around the moat and at TP gate are splendid. Don't know what it cost and don't really care. We know that previous gate/moat imrovement projects were not well thought out or even completed properly. Maybe a funding problem?

Did I mention how well the three recently-opened underpass projects worked out. I love 'em. And they were completed in less time than a slow trip to Jupiter.

And before I am tossed out of the ThaiVisa bitchin-an-moanin club let me annoy some of you with praise for the fantastic new Suvarnabhumi airport. I think it's just grand. Domestic, International... whatever. The new Chiang Mai International terminal is small and basic, but rather pleasant and the bathrooms smell nice.

This is not faint praise. I just think that sometimes "they" get it right. Thank you to the officials and contractors who did such fine work. I hope you were all paid fairly for your work.

Now when are they going to begin construction on that Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son tunnel?

[rishi]

Not a bad idea with a thread about the improvements (to some) that actually are carried through by the municipal authorities in this city. I do not get around that much so let me contribute with a small, local project which I've chosen to consider an improvement because plus'es are more plentiful than minus'es, although the latter do exist.

I live on some secondary "main" street in the inner moat area. I used to have an extraordinary pedestrian friendly sidewalk passage all 100 meter from my place up to the closest primary street in the area. However, user friendly as it was, that side of the street wasn't but a dull, ugly stretch of concrete and cement. And no shade throughout most of the day. Two years ago the municipal "engineers" came around and hammered their way through the cement every 4-5 meter on that stretch of sidewalk and freed about 1 sqm of nature at each point. They planted some 1.5 meter skinny trees at each spot, which now two years later are big enough to give some shade and make the neighborhood greener, although still have some years to go before becoming remarkable.

I like the trees. The dogs like the trees. I consider them a pleasant addition to the neighborhood. An extra benefit is that now the sidewalk is impassable which provides a good excuse for walking on the outer side of parked cars and thus can avoid the trouble of stepping up and down the 20 cm raised sidewalk at driveways en route.

[gpdjohn]

And before I am tossed out of the ThaiVisa bitchin-an-moanin club let me annoy some of you with praise for the fantastic new Suvarnabhumi airport. I think it's just grand. Domestic, International... whatever. The new Chiang Mai International terminal is small and basic, but rather pleasant and the bathrooms smell nice.

I would consider that an honor!

[john b good]

I just want to say how impressed I am with some of the more controversial municipal projects around here, large and small.

Now I'm no engineer (actually, I really am an engineer but it sounds quaint to deny it) but I'd say that the improvements around the moat and at TP gate are splendid. Don't know what it cost and don't really care. We know that previous gate/moat imrovement projects were not well thought out or even completed properly. Maybe a funding problem?

Did I mention how well the three recently-opened underpass projects worked out. I love 'em. And they were completed in less time than a slow trip to Jupiter.

And before I am tossed out of the ThaiVisa bitchin-an-moanin club let me annoy some of you with praise for the fantastic new Suvarnabhumi airport. I think it's just grand. Domestic, International... whatever. The new Chiang Mai International terminal is small and basic, but rather pleasant and the bathrooms smell nice.

This is not faint praise. I just think that sometimes "they" get it right. Thank you to the officials and contractors who did such fine work. I hope you were all paid fairly for your work.

Now when are they going to begin construction on that Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son tunnel?

You're post is clearly a troll.....

"with praise for the fantastic new Suvarnabhumi airport" !! are you really for real??

Suvarnabhumi airport!! They would have been better to have left the place as a swamp

[PeaceBlondie]

I agree with the OP about the slow trip to Jupiter. The ring road that includes the klong road, with its underpasses, is great. Although Big C at the corner of Hang Dong Road is either hard to get into, or out of, but that is beside the point. And the Jupiterian underpasses on the superhighway are - well - super. And let's admit the moat roads, with almost no stoplights, are good. Did I mention the long klong road that heads well south of Ratchapruek, four lanes divided?