More Bypass Delays

[Phuket Post]

More Bypass Delays

PHUKET'S PAIN IS BANGKOK'S GAIN

Fines of 33,390 baht a day will enrich the coffers of the Highways Department in Bangkok from the end of January as Phuket continues to struggle valiantly through the unfinished intersections and incomplete bypass broadening that has turned the centre of the island into a virtual car park for much of the past seven months. Contractor, HaanJaroen Enterprise Chiang Rai Co Ltd, now expects to complete the project by the end of March – a full two months after the, already twice extended, deadline on the contract expires.

Boonyakiat Kongketmai, Project Engineer at Phuket Provincial Highways Office said that the company was citing the inconvenience of trying to manage the project from its Chiang Mai headquarters as its main excuse this time, with out-dated and ramshackle machinery at the rock crushing and asphaltic concrete facilities also causing the contractor trouble.

Past excuses for HaanJaroen Enterprise’s failure to complete the 8.87 kilometre expansion project – originally scheduled for ribbon-cutting at the end of last September – have included unexpected rain during the rainy season.

Delays in securing government approval for the blasting required to build the new northern carriageway of the bypass won the company a 120-day extension to the contract, and almost doubled the original time limit for completion. However, while the approval delay for blasting did somewhat excuse the poor progress of the new carriageway, locals have been at a loss as to why the Darasamut and Tesco Lotus intersections – neither of which required blasting – appear to be taking even longer to complete than moving the mountain.

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