Delayed again: Samkong Underpass completion pushed to August

PHUKET: The expected completion date of the Samkong Underpass has been postponed yet again, from July 31 to mid August, the Highways Department confirmed today.

“At this stage, the project is about 83 percent complete,” said Patiwetwottisak Sookhii, the new director of the Phuket Highways Office. “However, due to the rainy weather, we have asked for more time to finish construction.”

Starting from January 22 this year, the construction company Wiwat Construction Co Ltd has been fined 2 million baht per day until the project is complete (story here).

The company continued construction despite the hefty fines. In February, the Transport Minister gave the company until April 10 to complete the project and the company promised to abide by the deadline (story here).

The deadline was further delayed to the end of June, which was then again pushed to July 31 (story here), and has now been delayed to mid-August.

“We will do our best to fix the condition of the road as much as possible, in order to help ease traffic in the area. We have also received a lot of complaints about accidents and damaged vehicles. We are working to fix that as soon as possible,” said Mr Patiwetwottisak.

Construction of the underpass at the Bang Ku intersection began in July last year. The project is being handled by Italian-Thai [Ital-Thai] Development Plc and is already about 50 per cent complete – despite the weather.

— Kongleaphy Keam