Flat Roads, A Technology From The West?!

[meadish_sweetball]

Apart from corruption chewing up part of the road budgets, slack regulations on axle loads and vehicle weight, substandard materials and workmanship, it is also a fact that Bangkok is built on mud, and many other parts of Thailand are areas of volcanic activity, which means earthquakes and other ground movements will affect road quality.

Reminds me of Life of Brian again...

"Apart from x, y, z, etc., what have the Romans done for us?"

"..."

"Brought peace?"

"Oh, shut up!"

[chownah]

I'm confused now. Are we talking about the 'smartarse', the 'smartass', or the 'smart ashphalt?' 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Isn’t asphalt that sticky stuff that hardens and keeps the dust down?

They’ve been promising they’d do that in our village for the last 10 years – haven’t seen anything yet.

Must be hard to be a farang with a car.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are exactly right about asphalt being that sticky stuff that hardens. Asphalt is like very very very thick oil...so thick that it is hard at standard temperature and pressure. If you mix hot asphalt (hot enough to make it very fluid) with sand and gravel then you have made 'asphalt concrete'....and if you mix all of this together in the correct proportions and then pave a road with it then you have made 'asphalt concrete pavement'. You can also spread gravel on a road and then spray hot asphalt onto it and then followed by another layer of gravel...all of which is usually compacted in place...and you have made what is called a 'chip seal' or 'bituminous surface treatment' back where I came from.

[Bryan in Isaan]

Up here in the Isaan, on the country roads, I notice that there will be a 5 km stretch of good smooth road that lasts a few years and next to it, another 5 km stretch of very bad road that falls apart almost immediately after it is built, and on and on in varying degrees. While I realize that subsoil, water table and other conditions might vary, I think the bottom line is - um - "human influence" - those beer tokens.

Bryan

[bkk_mike]

There is another reason for the roads undulating here - and that's the way they build most of the smaller bridges, by basically laying a precast concrete slab on driven piles across the small klong (canal), then building a ramp of tar up to it.

It's a very cheap way to build a bridge (I'd love to see how many bridges the Thais can build for the price of one in France), but does mean that you hammer the suspension of vehicles going over them. Especially as, because Bangkok's water table keeps getting lower, virtually the whole city is subsiding, so the road drops a little, while the concrete slab (on piles) doesn't, so they have to come along and patch the ramp...

The only truly good roads in Thailand are the elevated ones. (the expressways or the Bang-Na Chonburi motorway are at least as good as any road I've been on in Europe or the US, and far better than most).

[chownah]

There is another reason for the roads undulating here - and that's the way they build most of the smaller bridges, by basically laying a precast concrete slab on driven piles across the small klong (canal), then building a ramp of tar up to it.

It's a very cheap way to build a bridge (I'd love to see how many bridges the Thais can build for the price of one in France), but does mean that you hammer the suspension of vehicles going over them. Especially as, because Bangkok's water table keeps getting lower, virtually the whole city is subsiding, so the road drops a little, while the concrete slab (on piles) doesn't, so they have to come along and patch the ramp...

The only truly good roads in Thailand are the elevated ones. (the expressways or the Bang-Na Chonburi motorway are at least as good as any road I've been on in Europe or the US, and far better than most).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The bridge problem can be solved by building 'bridge approaches' to the bridges. These are highly reinforced concrete slabs built at each end of the bridge. One end of the approach rests on the end of the bridge while the other end rests on the roadbed subgrade. In this way the end on the roadbed will sink along with the road so no bump will develop at that end and the end on the bridge stays even there too....sort of like a self adjusting ramp.

Many people forget that building highways and bridges is expensive....very expensive. No country can afford to build their roads to the best standards...not even the US can afford this. Highway budgets are never enough to do everything the best way so you do the best you can with what you've got. If investments are allocated wisely your system will gradually improve with time. I would have to say that it appears to me that the Thai system is gradually improving over time and this is about as good as it ever gets...anywhere.

Edited May 28, 2005 by chownah