The city has many French colonial style official buildings, villas and shop-houses.
Plans to build a bridge over the Mekong, connecting Thakhek to Nakhon Phanom, are progressing. Construction is set to begin in 2008 and will take three years to complete. This is the third bridge connecting Laos and Thailand, after the ones between Vientiane and Nong Khai, and Savannakhet and Mukdahan provinces.