Beach Road, the focal point of Pattaya tourism. It has taken years and millions of baht to complete a scheme to route all the electricity cables underground and build a semblance of a promenade next to the beach. This work was finally finished a few months ago and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course it still looks like shit. But if you removed all of the manky hookers and their desperate customers, the shady street vendors, the flag following Korean tourists with their beige beachtowels; and then gave the whole place a good hose down with disinfectant; it might look vaguely acceptable.
Beach road has three lanes of one way traffic. One lane is blocked with parked vehicles. The second lane is often blocked by “I’ll stop wherever I want” baht buses, leaving one lane for the rest of us. So it can be slow, and it can get very jammed at peak times; but there is always something to watch while you sit waiting for the traffic to move (manky hookers and their desperate customers, the shady street vendors etc etc). At least the construction has stopped which has eased the problems considerably.
But City Hall is not satisfied with the traffic flow and has now decided the solution is to increase the width of the road by 18 metres to provide two more lanes and make the traffic two way. Problem is that one side of the road is right next to buildings, so the only way to expand the road will be to demolish the newly completed promenade and turn it into a road. Presumably all the underground cables will have to be moved again so that they are accessible for maintenance and a new promenade will have to be constructed where currently there is a beach. The project will take years, during which the whole area will look like a bomb site, and the end result will be two more lanes, one of which will be used for parking and the other for baht buses to stop when they feel like it.
No costs have been revealed, but I am sure there will be new advertising hoardings erected to substantially reduce the required budget.
I am sure that many motorists and all the manky hookers will be hoping that this project does not go ahead.