Second Phuket Airport Road A Top Priority

[LivinginKata]

Friday, May 1, 2009

Second Phuket Airport road a top priority

The proposed route of the new Phuket Airport road (in red) runs parallel to Thepkrasattri Rd along its 21-kilometer length.

PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop will make construction of a second north-south artery the top priority among the four new road projects he will push for the island.

Presently, Phuket has only Thepkrasattri Road to connect Phuket International Airport to most parts of the the island.

With the airport’s planned upgrade allowing it to accommodate 11.5 million passengers a year by 2016, Gov Wichai said he was concerned about the future impact such an increase in arrivals would have on traffic.

“I want to finish construction of the second Chalermprakiat Road before the expansion of Phuket International Airport. If we have an airport unloading 11.5 million tourists a year before the expansion is complete, it will spell traffic chaos on Thepkrasattri Road,” he said.

The first Chalermprakiat Road, so named to honor of HM The King, is referred to as the bypass road by most island residents.

The proposed route would follow electric power pylons all the way from a point near the airport to the bypass road in Koh Kaew, a total distance of around 21 kilometers.

If approved, the road would form a second north-south artery connecting with many other roads along its length.

Because of the presence of the power lines, large trucks and other vehicles over a prescribed weight would be banned from the new road.

The proposed roadway would not require expropriation of any private sector land as it would be built on state land currently under the control of the Electrical Generating Authority of Thailand, or EGAT. That agency is already studying the proposal, Gov Wichai said.

Gov Wichai said he will help the Phuket Highways Department seek the 3-million-baht budget it needs to hire a consulting company to conduct an initial project study.

The department estimates the work can be completed within two months, considerably faster than if the task were carried out by a state agency.

For information about the other three road projects, click here.

-- Phuket Gazette 2009-05-01

– Khunakorn Terdkiatkhachorn

[LivinginKata]

Whatever happened to the proposed monorail to the airport...

And the Patong/Kathu tunnel ...

Even more pie-in-the-sky ideas. But it's really great for the evaluation groups....

[pagallim]

Whatever happened to the proposed monorail to the airport...

And the Patong/Kathu tunnel ...

Even more pie-in-the-sky ideas. But it's really great for the evaluation groups....

Not sure of the routing of the new road, though my observation is that once past Thalang, the road is quiet. The most common destination for most visitors is probably the western side of the island (Kata/Karon/Patong/Surin/Kamala/Bang Tao etc), so that's where the route should be. My other comment is that an expansion of the car parking facilities at the airport is becoming desperate. For me, the solution would be to build (in stages, to minimise inconvenience), an upper level of the existing car park, which would not only provide shade for long term parked cars (at ground level), but also provide a direct, same level access to the departures area. Between tour/hotel buses and limo's, it's almost impossible to get anywhere near the terminal if you're dropping people off or picking them up.

[Valentine]

I have read in the past couple of days the highways dept is putting on hold all new road projects but not sure if the proposed airport road, Central overpass, Chalong to Patong, the tunnel (I believe two expensive evaluations have already been undertaken on this), etc fall under their jurisdiction. Phuket is in desperate need of a manageable road system with far too few main links & any existing alternatives or shortcuts are generally through narrow winding sois.

There are some roads which if completed properly would certainly help e.g Chalong to Patong, the road from Honda which cuts through to Kathu but grinds almost to a standstill behind PSU, completing the road from Chao Fa West through to Saphan Hin, making Chao Fa West a true 4 lane road.

Peak hours are getting longer every year & sometimes cannot even predict at any time if you can quickly get along Thepkasattri & past Two Heroines or getting around the inertsection at Central with fairly clear movement along Chao Fa. Remember how many years it took just to get the Central traffic lights correctly configured.

Many of the problems are obviously due to land requisition & the inevitable long drawn out negotiations yet they were able to make it work in Thalang after a while although in hindsight more room for expansion should have been allowed for.

[NBT TV Phuket]

item--5--- on VDO at http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...hp?news_id=1117

or

Phuket pushes for two new roads and proposes to seek central funding of over 400 million baht for the next fiscal year.

Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-Ngob is conducting a survey for possibilities to add at least two more roads on the island to ease traffic congestion. The first one he planned and had made a site survey for already, plus discussed with related agencies, is the route to connect Chalong to Nanai Road of Patong to shorten the length and time from the residential area over to the popular tourist beach area. Mr. Wichai said the new road will be as short as 5 kilometres and make it more convenient and safer for commuters to Patong, compared to the existing 25 kilometre route. He stressed that this is an urgent development project for the island. The second road project is a new road to be built parallel to the only main highway or Thepkasartri Road from the airport to the by-pass or Chalerm Phrakiat Road. This 21 kilometre long road will be built under high voltage power lines with an estimated cost of 400 million baht. He said he intends to propose and seek funding from the 2009 fiscal year, but this depends on the Department of Highway’s survey and design. During a meeting with local MPs, Mr. Rewat Areerob and Tossporn Theppabutr, the governor discussed the need for the new development with them and the two MPs agreed that they will present local requests to the government to seek budget support. The Phuket Governor however stated that if the Chalong-Patong road does not get funding support from central government, he would seek budget from local governments. He said the Chalong sub-district Administration Organization and Patong Municipality are prepared to contribute 30 million baht. The road parallel to Thepkasarti Road will go via 170 private land plots and he has met with all of them to inform them about the project.

Andaman News NBT TV (VHF dial) at 8.30am & perhaps repeats on Phuket Cable TV channel 1 at 3.30pm, 7pm & 1am, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces & Mazz Radio FM108 at 7pm in Phuket, Monday 18th May 2009 & http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/

& www.YouTube.com/AndamanNews