Nice new highway opened  at the beginning of the month from the Samoeng turn off on the canal road  towards Nam Phrae and beyond bypassing HangDong and San Patong going to Inthanon and Lamphun

 

Eastbound  from almost  the Grand Canyon turn off the road is under repair in many areas and is literally breaking up. To the best of my knowledge the westbound single road that is now a dual carriageway was resurfaced 3-4 times in the last few years, maybe the same contractor.

Yep - in driving by I can't see what they are trying to correct, but; they are going down to the bedrock in big sections.....

Sadly, as we all know, a contract and funding is issued, and then 50% of the money required to complete the task goes into someones pocket, with the rest of the job done on the cheap.

 

Most of the new road is fine, but the last five kilometres coming towards the City approaching the Samoeng junction is already, after less than a month , in a shocking and dangerous state, full of huge potholes that you have to navigate very carefully.

7 hours ago, EL159 said:

Sadly, as we all know, a contract and funding is issued, and then 50% of the money required to complete the task goes into someones pocket, with the rest of the job done on the cheap.

 

Most of the new road is fine, but the last five kilometres coming towards the City approaching the Samoeng junction is already, after less than a month , in a shocking and dangerous state, full of huge potholes that you have to navigate very carefully.

contractors don't get paid until the work is signed off. It can take months or even years in Thailand.

 

"50% of the money required to complete the task goes into someones pocket"

 

You are supposed to prefix statements like this with 'in my wild imagination-'

 

I agree there is often corrupt payments involving government contracts but often the problem with roads here is just good 'ol fashioned incompetence.

 

2 hours ago, Loaded said:

contractors don't get paid until the work is signed off. It can take months or even years in Thailand.

 

"50% of the money required to complete the task goes into someones pocket"

 

You are supposed to prefix statements like this with 'in my wild imagination-'

 

I agree there is often corrupt payments involving government contracts but often the problem with roads here is just good 'ol fashioned incompetence.

 

"In my wild imagination" you appear to be burying your head in the sand....or the pothole!

I'v been biking this new road for many months, before, during and after surfacing and the job was only ever half done.  There is no stone infrastructure under the road surface as there would be in Europe, they just built it up with thousands of truck loads of dirt and compacted it with road rollers.  After several weeks to allow things to 'settle' they then applied Tarmac in varying depths, no more than 30 cm's in some area's and as little as 5 cm's in others.  There is no centre lane cambering and as soon as the road opened to traffic ranging from 1 Ton to 20 odd Ton per vehicle (lets be kind and say 20,000 vehicles a day ) the surface started 'trenching', as anyone with even a small percentage of brain knew it would.    Subsequently; as soon as it rained the water filled the trenches and the surface began to break up within three days of the road opening.

 

I have posted a couple of photo's and as you can see by the piece of Tarmac leaning on my shoe, there is just no adequate substance to the surface and to my dismay they are just scraping off the crumbled sections and filling them with more of the same depth off surface, which of course, is breaking up again, so 'somebody' has told them to dig a bit deeper and put some concrete in first.    Naturally; some Thai truck driver has said ''Oh look; somebody has put in wet concrete, so why not drive through it ''  Lol.      It won't last and the whole road needs ripping up and rebuilding PROPERLY but fat chance of that happening !

the real money is in the repairs. so why build it correctly in the first place?

 

The is the insidious nature of corruption that is in everything in Thailand.

we had a local road around the lake built up and re surfaced not that long ago due to it flooding  during peak high tides, I actually put up pics in here of it being done and commented an how they had simply built up the road  with the common red dirt/clay then put concrete on top of it. Where the road meets the bridge it has already subsided almost 2", no steel was used to link them together, they simply stopped at the end of the bridge surface, with all the local rains of late I get the feeling this is only going to get worse but it is typical of how they build roads here, as cheaply as possible so maximum profit is made. Unfortunately no govt officials seem to want to stop this blatant graft process, have to wonder how much they are getting to ignore it

So they don't build roads so good here. That really is news.


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Why bother with all of the rain the roads will be crap very fast anyway, all it takes is one crack for the water to get threw and the asphalt is history and yes I know the roads can be built piss poor

My considered advice; drive slower and with care.  Paradise has a price including shitty roadways.

Many of the areas that were repaired last week are already crumbling again! Incredible.

Many of the areas that were repaired last week are already crumbling again! Incredible.

Look more carefully and learn that is not uncommon.


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On 9/20/2018 at 12:10 PM, chingmai331 said:

My considered advice; drive slower and with care.  Paradise has a price including shitty roadways.

well, it ain't exactly paradise ......but for me its still a lot better than other alternatives !   and a lot cheaper.

I hear from my daughter that Buffalo NY potholes are worse than here ,  just in case any of you were thinking

of moving there (first world infrastructure and all  ?)

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

Many of the areas that were repaired last week are already crumbling again! Incredible.

yes,  incredible...Thailand.    it used to be Amazing !

On 9/20/2018 at 10:02 AM, seajae said:

we had a local road around the lake built up and re surfaced not that long ago due to it flooding  during peak high tides, I actually put up pics in here of it being done and commented an how they had simply built up the road  with the common red dirt/clay then put concrete on top of it. Where the road meets the bridge it has already subsided almost 2", no steel was used to link them together, they simply stopped at the end of the bridge surface, with all the local rains of late I get the feeling this is only going to get worse but it is typical of how they build roads here, as cheaply as possible so maximum profit is made. Unfortunately no govt officials seem to want to stop this blatant graft process, have to wonder how much they are getting to ignore it

 

Plus many officials are too afraid to speak up because it would implicate their colleagues and their superiors, too dangerous to speak up. Sad. 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Look more carefully and learn that is not uncommon.


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In one week, hardly. I have seen bad roadworks here over many years but this one is exceptional but perhaps you look more carefully than I do?

The new side of the road, going towards the City, only opened on Wednesday 5th September.  We sat in amazement at a coffee shop on the first morning as despite massive signs everywhere, traffic continued to try to go the wrong way both sides up and down both carriageways. Police were there in big numbers to be fair, and despite them blocking access roads to stop people going the wrong way, they still in some cases did all they could to dodge past the police to go the wrong way!

4 minutes ago, EL159 said:

The new side of the road, going towards the City, only opened on Wednesday 5th September.  We sat in amazement at a coffee shop on the first morning as despite massive signs everywhere, traffic continued to try to go the wrong way both sides up and down both carriageways. Police were there in big numbers to be fair, and despite them blocking access roads to stop people going the wrong way, they still in some cases did all they could to dodge past the police to go the wrong way!

So now they're burying the ones that didn't make it ?????

On 9/19/2018 at 2:46 AM, pgrahmm said:

Yep - in driving by I can't see what they are trying to correct, but; they are going down to the bedrock in big sections.....

 

Well, that's a hopeful sign as it will be the first Thai road That I will have ever seen rock under.

On 9/21/2018 at 3:25 PM, EL159 said:

The new side of the road, going towards the City, only opened on Wednesday 5th September.  We sat in amazement at a coffee shop on the first morning as despite massive signs everywhere, traffic continued to try to go the wrong way both sides up and down both carriageways. Police were there in big numbers to be fair, and despite them blocking access roads to stop people going the wrong way, they still in some cases did all they could to dodge past the police to go the wrong way!

People have been driving both directions on both sides of the road for some time. Confusing as hell and dangerous. 

probably the usual tarmac or concrete onto an unstable sand base

On ‎9‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 3:02 PM, seajae said:

we had a local road around the lake built up and re surfaced not that long ago due to it flooding  during peak high tides, I actually put up pics in here of it being done and commented an how they had simply built up the road  with the common red dirt/clay then put concrete on top of it. Where the road meets the bridge it has already subsided almost 2", no steel was used to link them together, they simply stopped at the end of the bridge surface, with all the local rains of late I get the feeling this is only going to get worse but it is typical of how they build roads here, as cheaply as possible so maximum profit is made. Unfortunately no govt officials seem to want to stop this blatant graft process, have to wonder how much they are getting to ignore it

The new road along the Mekong to take the trucks going to/ from Laos was just tar seal on dirt. I expect it's failed already. The reason it happens is obvious, but eventually the government is going to be forced to do something about it.