The Transport Ministry has ordered the suspension of all construction projects along Rama II Road from Dec 26 to Jan 2 to facilitate travel during the New Year holiday.

Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit on Thursday said the eight-day order focuses on people who want to use the road to the South.

“We also ordered the return of the road surface, as much as possible, to facilitate people using the route,” he said. “We also want people to study the route before travelling to avoid traffic congestion during the New Year festival.”

Please credit and share this article with others using this link: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2914822/ministry-pauses-rama-ii-roadworks. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post PCL. All rights reserved.

The order followed the latest incident of a crane collapsing on Rama II Road in Samut Sakhon. The tragedy, which occurred at about 4am on Nov 29 at the site of the elevated Ekkachai-Ban Phaeo Intercity Motorway 82 (M82) project, claimed the lives of six workers and injured nine others.

Mr Suriya said he has directed ministry agencies, including the Department of Highways (DoH), the Department of Rural Roads, the Expressway Authority of Thailand and the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, to work with the Ministry of Finance to evaluate construction contractors’ performance as soon as possible and record them in a “Contractor’s Notebook”.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2914822/ministry-pauses-rama-ii-roadworks. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post PCL. All rights reserved.

Scores can be deducted based on performance, he said, adding that if a contractor fails to meet safety requirements, the ministry can immediately delete its name from the government’s registry.

“In the next two weeks, the regulation of the Contractor’s Notebook will be summarised,” he said. “We will also discuss it further with the Comptroller General’s Department of the Finance Ministry before enforcement.”

Regarding an update on the M82 collapse, Apirat Chaiwongnoi, the DoH director-general, said the department has appointed a fact-finding committee and invited representatives from the Engineering Institute of Thailand and the Council of Engineers to join the committee.

The results of the investigation will be known around the middle of this month, he said.

As for the latest progress on the removal of steel and concrete structure parts, the engineering team has now safely lifted the three concrete bridge segments and will dismantle the steel structure. The removal of all remaining parts is also expected to be completed around the middle of this month.

In related news, the Ministry of Transport expects that many people will travel using personal vehicles during the New Year festival, making a total of 17 million private car trips in and out of Bangkok, an increase of 16 million trips from the previous year.

As for travel by public transportation, the ministry expects that there will be a total of 17 million trips with people travelling by bus, train, boat and plane.

Travel within Bangkok and its vicinity is expected to total 12 million trips, travel between provinces will total 2.3 million trips, and international travel will total 1.8 million trips.

Source : https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2914822/ministry-pauses-rama-ii-roadworks