Cutting trees along route 101 in Nan province

Route 101 in Nan - North Thailand

In March 2015 I was riding on route 101 north of Nan town, and this route is going to the international border crossing (to Laos) is being widened from 8m to 12m. That means destruction of mountain parts, trees and even sometimes houses. Progress? I am not sure. All the traffic will still have to go thru Nan city as there is no by-pass at Nan city (well not one that really works). Luckily there seems to be a lot of local protest and maybe some trees will be spared and/or replaced. If you love trees have a look at BIG Trees Project

Well all the protest did not really help. The work did go on and most trees are gone. Now being more as 1 year later they are still "working" on the road construction. That means the road is in total construction state and for weeks there is no work done at all. Also I do not understand what they are doing because some parts have been made a divided highway with 2 lanes for each side. Other parts are also made bigger but not as divided highway and only 1 lane on each side. So what is the use of the parts with 4 lanes?