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How to Build a Road (Part 2)

This article continues from the last edition, where we gave some helpful hints for those needing to know how to build a road properly.

Before we discuss the road surface, we found an interesting note about roads in the UK which some, in this corner of the world, some might find instructive – or ridiculous:

www.highways.gov.uk/roads/12716.aspx

I thought it was garbage. It contains rubbish such as a list of matters to be addressed before the road gets built, including:

• Public consultation with local communities

• Considering the effect of the road on the environment

• Holding a Public enquiry

And the biggest laugh of all:

• acquiring land needed to build the road, before you start to build it.

What’s wrong with doing it the Pattaya way? Look at the success of Thappraya Road for instance.

Anyway, let’s assume you heeded the advice in our last column, and your road project is progressing well. What next?

The obvious answer is that for an expensive, important road, the right materials must be used so that it can withstand traffic, wet weather, and wear and tear.

This is so obvious you might wonder why I am telling you, but some fail to specify, supervise or care about the quality of their roads, even though they are a hugely expensive item.

If you don’t put down enough supporting material before you lay the surface of the road, you are in big trouble right away. The road will very quickly become damaged from even normal use.

But if you compound that mistake with another one, and only lay a final road surface having little more substance than weak glue mixed with cardboard, applied to a micro-thinness with a fish knife, you will see problems occurring immediately.

If these elementary mistakes are made on important, busy roads, which form the lifeblood of towns such as, I don’t know, say, Jomtien, and Pattaya for example, within months of ‘completion’ of the road surface, you will find yourself with potholes and a dirt track full of stones.

The examples shown here have recently been filled in, but serve to exemplify the pitfalls of poor construction. The problems appeared within months of completion of the road surface, and got worse until it became a potholed dirt track in places, before being filled in with sub-par tarmacadam, which is already working itself loose.

For your road, be sure to use good quality materials and apply them thickly enough, otherwise you will waste even more of your money and time in repairing it constantly, only months after the road has been completed.

Next Edition: Adequate Drainage and Road Obstructions.

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-- Pattaya One 2010-10-21