Patong Mayor orders construction at Phuket landslide site to stop

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Patong Mayor orders construction at Phuket landslide site to stop
The Phuket News


The landslide at the Patong Bay Hill construction site killed one man and injured another five.

PHUKET: -- The Mayor of Patong, Chalermluck Kepsap, yesterday (June 15) visited the contruction site where a Burmese worker died on Saturday (June 13) after being buried under a landslide. She has instructed that construction at the site be stopped.

The 20-year-old man, named only as Sudlai, and five of his co-workers got trapped under a landslide that occurred while they were working at the Patong Bay Hill construction site. Sudlai was announced dead at the scene while the other men were taken to Patong hospital for treatment. (Read story here)

Speaking to the media yesterday, Ms Chalermluck said, “The company who are behind the construction applied for a construction permit a long time ago so I have made a request to re-examine all the relevant paper work.

“In addition, I have advised the project manager to put a stop to all construction work until all the paper work has been checked and we confirm that it is all in order.”

Meanwhile, the site project manager, Anupong Mutharait, has made a statement in which he said that the incident happened as the workers were working on putting up a retaining wall. Heavy rain caused the landslide which in turn caused the part-built wall to collapse.

He also stated that all workers on site are legal and have work permits and that the construction company [Patong Bay Group Co] will take of all hospital bills and pay compensation to the family of the deceased.

“We will talk with the construction company and find ways to protect this type of incident happening again,” he added.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/patong-mayor-orders-construction-at-phuket-landslide-site-to-stop-52795.php

-- Phuket News 2015-06-16

[steelepulse]

Clash of the Titans: Keesins vs Kebsubs. Old mayor's family ( and Prab which overseas the Patong taxi and tuk tuk co-op) vs the new mayor.

[Deli]

Hope they annihilate each other this way.

Building a retaining wall in June when it usually rains since 6 weeks already ? What kind of planning is this ?

Oh... forgot: It's Patong

[jaiyen]

No matter how big they build the retaining wall it will not stop a landslide. They just dont have any engineering skills or common sense to realize that when thousands of tons of rock and dirt starts to move nothing will stop it. These sites should not have any houses built on them. One day they apartments opposite Surin beach will come to grief and they are built on rock.

[Nobb]

Good job Khun Mayor. The law says you should have sides boarded up to provide safety for the workers. No safety in this construction site. What is the workers life mean to them nothing but faster working with great risk and more profit! Can any one see a retaining wall on this project?

Edited June 16, 2015 by Nobb

[DrDave]

An order to halt construction on a project that's progressing at a snail's pace isn't going to have much impact.

There was an article in PG last November in which one of the managers stated that the hotel operation at Patong Bay Hill would be ready for a 1 month trial run in May, and open for business in June (e.g. now). Anyone looking at the progress on the site can see this project (which was begun over 2 years ago) won't be completed for at least another year if work continues at the same pace. They haven't even got some of the buildings under roof yet.

How, only 7 months ago, someone could say it would be completed by now is beyond me.

As to checking the "papers" for the project - construction on what is I believe the largest project ever built in Patong (excepting Jungceylon) has been ongoing for over 2 years and no one has checked to see if there's a building permit?

[LivinginKata]

<snip>

As to checking the "papers" for the project - construction on what is I believe the largest project ever built in Patong (excepting Jungceylon) has been ongoing for over 2 years and no one has checked to see if there's a building permit?

Is that any real surprise ? My wife and I have built 3 apartment blocks and no-one from authority ever checked if we had planning permission during the building process. It's only when an address paper was requested (the so called tabian baan) that a building permit & licence had to be provided. In my experience it's all very 'mickey mouse'.

[gandalf12]

Stop it after someone dies but never have proper safety measures in place to start with. What a fiasco

[billphillips]

A retaining wall .... Hmmmm. It is near impossible to retain soil on a slope because when you add water or rain, the forces are massive and require a dam type construction to hold everything in place. A more accepted method of construction is to pile the foundations and construct a stilt like structure, thus allowing the natural process of soil erosion to continue below the new building.

It's very sad to read of injuries and a death. At least someone has put a hold on proceedings while the plans are checked out. Let's hope that common sense prevails and some serious revisions are made.

[Jimlove]

Talk about being late to close Down a dangerous Building site - what a moron .. Did the Brown envelopes stop coming ... ?

[gandalf12]

A lot of HSE people go overboard on jobs at times but it appears they do the opposite in Thailand; they just dont have any