Tak's 'death road' to be improved

[Thaivisa News]

Tak:- A so-called death road in Tak province is going to shake off its notoriety.

Relevant authorities have now decided to go ahead with a plan to boost the road’s safety by increasing the number of its traffic lanes from two to four along two of its portions.

The move means this road, officially known as Highway 12, will be four-lane throughout its 87-km stretch.

At present, two portions of the highway are just two-lane. Users describe the road as rather narrow and dangerous particularly around Doi Ruak.

Accidents on the road killed more than 50 people in a month last year.

According to Thairath, the Transport Ministry is thus now preparing to improve the road. It will spend Bt2.4 billion on increasing the number of traffic lanes along two portions of the Highway 12. These two portions will have a combined stretch of 40 kilometer.

Constructions will begin this year.

Once the constructions are completed, Highway 12 should provide greater convenience and safety to motorists.

In a related development, the government approves the project to construct a bridge across the Moei River to link Tak’s Mae Sot district to Myanmar’s Myawaddy.

It will take Bt3.9billion and two years to build this bridge.

“The bridge will facilitate development from the Tak Special Economic Zone,” Tak Governor Somchai Hatayasanti says.

With the ASEAN Economic Community to materialize before the end of this year, several border provinces including Tak look set to enjoy economic boom.

[wabothai]

Good idea, only when built with a center divider.

[iamariva1957]

Well it is a good idea.... but as we here in Mae Sot know only too well... good ideas sound great, but nothing happens. Hell the widening of the present road between Mae Sot and Tak though some stretches look like they will be completed, it has taken them a year to get as far as they have and that ain't much at all. Then there is the issue that they cannot do it to the entire length of the road (to many mountains and valleys at the edge of the present roadway).

Besides, no matter how many lanes, center dividers, warning signs, and/or other 'safety items' you will always have the presence of the Thai driver, who all seem to have learned how to drive and road safety by taking a correspondence course from some fly-by-night outfit.