Repairs to Pattaya’s beaches following some of the worst flooding of the rainy season are expected to be completed by Wednesday, Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome said.
Sonthaya and his top deputies surveyed the damage to the shoreline late Oct. 3 following more than three hours of heavy rain that morning. Work crews and heavy machinery didn’t begin repair work until Monday, however.
Bulldozers and backloaders began at the southernmost end, scooping sand from the sea to fill the huge tracts of sand carved out at several places along the beach by raging runoff from the storm that hit the city early Saturday.
Water racing westward from the higher elevations of Nongprue Subdistrict first submerged Sukhumvit Road, Third and Second Roads, before finally pooling on Beach Road where the floodwaters used car and boat ramps to dig channels more than a meter deep into the rebuilt Pattaya Beach.
Damage was nearly as bad on Jomtien Beach where similar chunks of sand were washed away. Like Pattaya Beach last year, Jomtien is set to receive a 586-million-baht rebuild that won’t be completed until 2022.
Sonthaya said it would take three days to completely return the beachfront to normal. By Monday afternoon, some gouges had been patched, although the sand remained very uneven with deep grooves and steps that needed to be leveled.
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