New Storm Water Drainage

[Humphrey Bear]

Pardon all the potential typos - I am writing this in an Internet shop with black letters on blacxck keys, and my eyesight is noyjing special to start with.

I arrived back home last Monday, for my quarterly vacation, and found the road in a state of chais.

The storm water drainage is being replaced. My wife tells me this is scxheduled for all Pattaya over the next four years, so be warned - everyone!

They have ripped off the asphalt paving, gouged a couple of trenches in the loam below the road - exposing the potable water lines, sewers, what-have-you in the process.

Without any bedding material thry have dropped in concrete saddles and metre-wide concrete pipes, used the excavator to butt the pipes up to one another, than covered the whole abortion with the excavated loam.

Evidently they will lay a concrete paving above all this to hide the crime. From the level of the new drainage coveras I would say that in many places th road will be above the drive-ways of the houses - therefore the run-off will be to the houses, not down the SWDs.

Also, by just butting the pipes together, there will be considerable leakage and the loam will disappear, leaving the concrete pavement, the drains, the potable water and all sorts of other services prone to collapse.

I saw no local government functionary at the site at any time - nor any surveyor levelling the drain runs. Also no protection for the general public when trenching, when lifting pipes, when filling the road.

An absolutely deplorable scene that I would not have expected in an African Jungle, let alone here in Pattaya.

If they had been working for me - they wouldn't have been! Chopped thhe lot within the first hour.

[PhilHarries]

It is utterly incredible how the city council gets away with hiring such total incompetants year after year after year. It is nothing more than blatant job creation/preservation. Do a shoddy job and get to come back two years time and do it again.

Has there ever been a year when they aren't digging up roads in Pattaya. Has any of their storm water management schemes ever made any difference to the flooding? If the local English language gutter press would stop reporting on arrests of Uzbeck prostitutes and focus on some real issues they would be approaching doing something useful. But nobody on those useless wastes of paper has the balls to expose the real crooks of Pattaya.

[patsfangr]

It is utterly incredible how the city council gets away with hiring such total incompetants year after year after year. It is nothing more than blatant job creation/preservation. Do a shoddy job and get to come back two years time and do it again.

Has there ever been a year when they aren't digging up roads in Pattaya. Has any of their storm water management schemes ever made any difference to the flooding? If the local English language gutter press would stop reporting on arrests of Uzbeck prostitutes and focus on some real issues they would be approaching doing something useful. But nobody on those useless wastes of paper has the balls to expose the real crooks of Pattaya.

AMEN! to all you've said here, Phil. However, I suspect that those "news" rags you mentioned really did execute and publish meaningful investigative reporting, how long do you think they'd be in business here?

As to the roads, my greatest frustrations here in Pattaya are the road conditions, and the deplorable lack of enforcement of traffic regulations, particularly as they pertain to motorbikes. I'm a relative newcomer, having moved here from Southern California in April of last year. As you may know, the roads in Southern California are among the best in the world; so I am quite spoiled. I suppose that, as time passes, I will, like most expats here, come to terms with the fact that things are very unlikely to change here, and must be accepted to avoid driving my blood pressure to the point of a stroke. But, if I tell you that I used to constantly bitch about the the traffic and lousy drivers in So Cal, you'll understand how really tough it is for me to adjust to these conditions so early in my life as a Pattaya resident. :-)

George

[bazmlb]

Just for something different they dug up third rd and pattaya tai corner again today, luckily just to fix the bitumen, still its about the 5th time that corner has had works, wonder if it will ever be fixed.

btw, the Army seem to be doing a splendid job over on the road along side the railway line

[Humphrey Bear]

Further update on the Suksabai Villa roads - The finished level will definitely be level with, or above, the entrances to the houses. Looks like the kerbs and sidewalks will be incorporated in the road.

Not much work yesterday, during the day, and have seen no workers today. However ar eight o'clock last night they started to deliver aggregate in very large double-trailer trucks and stopped at three a.m. As the trailers were so large and so long, they had difficulties turning in to the development - so lots of shouting, revving of engines and so on all night.

Woke up this morning to find these metre-high mounds of stone all along (and all across) the road. So no cars able to get out of their driveways, had to carry my wife's mo'bike over the mounds so that she could take the kids to school.

As I say - no sign of any labour today - why the <deleted> did they deliver during the night? What was wrong with today? (I am ratty due to lack of sleep)

I am back to Saudi on Sunday, where the 35,000 strong workforce of Bangladeshhi Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Arab and many other nationalities, all know what construction work is and all know their role.

Even in jungle Africa I had better work done than these idiots can produce.

(And I have had good Thai labour in several countries - but never in Thailand)

[Humphrey Bear]

Now I'm back in Saudi, so cannot comment any further on this farce.

On Friday my wife tried to ride along the road (as Thai wives are wont to do) and the first I knew was my daughter coming into the garden screaming 'Papa, papa' and when I went out I found my wife lying under her mo'bike. Only scrapes and bruises luckily, but who leaves tonnes of aggregate in drop-loads all along a road for days?

Saturday they sent a team to spread the gravel over the road. Ten labourers and Michael Schumacher in a JCB. Back and forward, taking turns at speed - but not neqarly the speed he achieved in the straights.

The loam under the gravel shows through in many places, aggregate is not the correct base for concrete anyway - compacted sand is preferable - but let's see what the end result turns out to be.