Cost Of Laying A Track/road

[sleepyjohn]

Hi there all.

I may have to lay some hundreds of metres of track/road, and would like to know if anyone's done it and the metre cost involved. I would prefer something that will last longer than the norm here.

It would be the sort of narrow track that two vehicles can just pass.

I guess the options are concrete, or those interlocking blocks....any comments on their various merits?

Edited February 6, 2006 by sleepyjohn

[ChiefBEM]

Hi there all.

I may have to lay some hundreds of metres of track/road, and would like to know if anyone's done it and the metre cost involved. I would prefer something that will last longer than the norm here.

It would be the sort of narrow track that two vehicles can just pass.

I guess the options are concrete, or those interlocking blocks....any comments on their various merits?

If the road will benefit others and is not totally on your land, the Thai government may build it for you and share the costs with you. Of course your share will depend on how much is on your land and in the range of 50% - 75%.

But it is worth a shot.

[Morden]

If you can't get the government to build a road, consider a red dirt track as a cheaper and fairly clean alternative to concrete. You may have to fill in some ruts after the rainy season but it makes a good surface otherwise. If there's not much traffic you could save money by building a single track road with some passing places.

[sleepyjohn]

Thankyou for your suggestion about the government grant, which I'll bear in mind. We're near the end of the lane, so it probably won't pertain.

I need to do about 200m of public track, red dirt at the moment which will have to be a (narrow) two lane (4m?), probably concrete, which I think a neighbour will share with me. The red dirt is NOT satisfactory as it's on a hill and ruts easily.

That is one item.

Then there is my private road ON my land. Not sure how long it will be but very interested in the Baht/metre price for each. Single lane will do. Any experience anyone with those blocks the grass grows through? Tarmacadam?

Thankyou...

[chownah]

Thankyou for your suggestion about the government grant, which I'll bear in mind. We're near the end of the lane, so it probably won't pertain.

I need to do about 200m of public track, red dirt at the moment which will have to be a (narrow) two lane (4m?), probably concrete, which I think a neighbour will share with me. The red dirt is NOT satisfactory as it's on a hill and ruts easily.

That is one item.

Then there is my private road ON my land. Not sure how long it will be but very interested in the Baht/metre price for each. Single lane will do. Any experience anyone with those blocks the grass grows through? Tarmacadam?

Thankyou...

I guess it sounds like you will not have to bring in alot of dirt but you mostly will just have to put a surfacing treatment on it. If you use concrete then you can estimate the cost of the materials at least. When they paved the soi here last year the concrete was brought in concrete trucks and it cost the village 1400 baht per cubic metre. The soi was constructed at 15 cm thick so that means the concrete was 210 baht per square metre. For reinforcement they sometimes use steel rebar and sometimes they use bamboo. I would use the steel and if I remember correctly they use #2 full on 20 cm centers....this requires 10 metres of rebar per square metre and this rebar is about 5 baht per metre so this comes to 50 baht per metre.....so far the total is 260 baht per metre. Now the tricky part...labor. It seems like it took about 5 people working 4 days to lay about 300 square meters and figuring 400 baht per person per day (this is a bit high but this includes some profit for the company that will provide the labor, expertise, and forms) this comes to about 30 baht per square metre....giving a grand total of about 300 baht per square metre....for the actual laying of the pavement. If you want to regrade the road you will need to pay extra. If you want to dig ditches to maintain or improve drainage then this is extra as is the installation or replacement of any pipes going under the road for drainage.....remember what they taught me in engineering school...the three most important things in building a long lasting road are drainage, drainage, and drainage.

If you get an actual quote for the cost per square metre for your road for concrete pavement I would appreciate letting me know since I would like to see how close (or far) I am.

[timber]

Cost of Laying a Track?road

I don't know where you live or the type of ground cover so hard to help you without some comments about the ground. Fill can be fairly cheap but has to be suitable. Have to think about source of fill, drainage, what the fill is going on (type of sub-grade). Slope of the road. Do you need clearing? Do you need a bulldozer for the sub-grade? The main problem they have in Thailand is that they don't worry much about the sub-grade. If you don't mind spending money to get a good road. It you decide what kind of surface you want the person who provides it can give you the name of someone who will do the sub-grade work. Sometimes it is a good idea to put in good fill and run on it for a few years then put on a good surface. There are contractors around that can give you bids on doing the work. If you get a few bids you can then compare them with each other.

Hi there all.

I may have to lay some hundreds of metres of track/road, and would like to know if anyone's done it and the metre cost involved. I would prefer something that will last longer than the norm here.

It would be the sort of narrow track that two vehicles can just pass.

I guess the options are concrete, or those interlocking blocks....any comments on their various merits?

[sleepyjohn]

If you get an actual quote for the cost per square metre for your road for concrete pavement I would appreciate letting me know since I would like to see how close (or far) I am.

Thankyou for your replies especially Chownah...very useful indeed and full of detail.

I had thought exactly the same thing about drainage.

I think the road outside the land will be concrete as per you said, and a track on the land I might use blocks as they look less, well, concretey.

I shall certainly let you know if and when this happens (I am negotiating for purchase right now), and the cost of the blocks I suspect is similar. Anyone know that?

A friend said tarmacadam would be cheap, and I was very surprised. This i would consider for on the land for the single lane track. It could probably be fairly thin as it would get little use.

Know anything about that alternative?

Thanx again for all your inputs

John

[chownah]

I'm not sure what you mean by "tarmacadam". Different people use it to mean different things. In the US we construct pavement surfacing using rock, sand, and petroleum based tar.....we call it either bituminous surface treatement (BST) or asphalt concrete pavement (ACP)....depending on how its made. Bituminous surface treatment is done by putting down a layer of rock and then spraying asphalt (tar) onto the rock. You can repeat this process many times to create a stronger pavement. Asphalt concrete pavement is made by mixing rock, sand, and asphalt (tar) in a big drum while hot and then this mixture is spread and compacted in place to make the pavement.

Generally speaking ACP is stronger than BST and concrete pavement is the strongest. Paving with concrete is fairly easy to do and you will get a reasonable product if you hire almost anyone to do it. On the other hand, it is more difficult to do a good job of BST and ACP construction and the chances of getting an inferior product is greater. Also, BST and ACP can deteriorate rapidly if heavy trucks or equipment travel on it...especially if it is not properly constructed. BST and ACP will not last as long as concrete....but they are cheaper. For a gov't agency, determining what type of pavement to construct is done by analyzing the quality of the dirt under the pavement and the traffic that will travel on the pavement and, of course, the relative costs of each. If you want the most long lived pavement then concrete is the way to go....as for which is the most cost effective over the long haul is hard to know...it depends not only on initial cost but also on the quality of the construction which will determine the service life of the pavement.

I hope this helps and does not just confuse you. I have never heard of prices for constructing asphalt based pavements in Thailand. If concrete costs twice as much then I would still go with the concrete (if I could afford it) but if it costs four times as much then I would think hard about it and see if I could find a contractor who I thought could do a good job with the asphalt...hard to know. Also, when building an asphalt based pavement it is very important that the base you build it on be good....this usually means a layer of crushed rock compacted in place before laying the asphalt.

Quick edit: The sois in most villages are construced with concrete which to me means that overall it is probably the best, most cost effective way to go.

Edited February 8, 2006 by chownah

[sleepyjohn]

Thanx again for the excellent info Chownah.

I am surprised that asphalt or "tarmac" road is cheaper actually.

I think it looks very well, better than concrete certainly, if it's edged properly, and as there shouldn't be any heavy traffic on the land itself it might be an option there.

The road outside will certainly be good solid concrete, no skimping.

Thankyou again...

[Jamesthai]

Sorry to point out the obvious but one solution to save money is to have a single width road -say to 2.5 metres with wider passing points say evey 100m or less.

The usual option seems to be concrete with a layer of mesh reinforcement. You can get reusable steel formwork quite easily.

The cost for this a couple of years ago from what I remember was in the region of 2000 Baht per metre, but dont quote me on this. This was on a slope and exluded any decent drainage. It was also on an island -so more expensive.

Look as the current lie of the land and how it drains and think logically about where to put the road. This is often the route of a current track but may not be. Try not to have it too steep or cambered.

Another importnat thing is maintenace-clear away all the coconuts after rainy season as they break it up as they grow. Also consider localised drainage if it is required.

Hope this helps-let me know what you get quoted.

[sleepyjohn]

Sorry to point out the obvious but one solution to save money is to have a single width road -say to 2.5 metres with wider passing points say evey 100m or less.

The usual option seems to be concrete with a layer of mesh reinforcement. You can get reusable steel formwork quite easily.

The cost for this a couple of years ago from what I remember was in the region of 2000 Baht per metre, but dont quote me on this. This was on a slope and exluded any decent drainage. It was also on an island -so more expensive.

Look as the current lie of the land and how it drains and think logically about where to put the road. This is often the route of a current track but may not be. Try not to have it too steep or cambered.

Another importnat thing is maintenace-clear away all the coconuts after rainy season as they break it up as they grow. Also consider localised drainage if it is required.

Hope this helps-let me know what you get quoted.

Thankyou James

it sounds like you are down south and EVERYTHING is cheaper up up here in Chiangmai I think including construction works like this. However every bit of info helps and 2000 is another piece of the jigsaw....have you read "The Wisdom of Crowds?"

The public lane outside would be as wide as the space allows, near 4m, whilst, my private track would be single lane I think 2.5m. Traffic congestion estimate for my bit: 3 vehicles per day!!

[chownah]

Sorry to point out the obvious but one solution to save money is to have a single width road -say to 2.5 metres with wider passing points say evey 100m or less.

The usual option seems to be concrete with a layer of mesh reinforcement. You can get reusable steel formwork quite easily.

The cost for this a couple of years ago from what I remember was in the region of 2000 Baht per metre, but dont quote me on this. This was on a slope and exluded any decent drainage. It was also on an island -so more expensive.

Look as the current lie of the land and how it drains and think logically about where to put the road. This is often the route of a current track but may not be. Try not to have it too steep or cambered.

Another importnat thing is maintenace-clear away all the coconuts after rainy season as they break it up as they grow. Also consider localised drainage if it is required.

Hope this helps-let me know what you get quoted.

Thankyou James

it sounds like you are down south and EVERYTHING is cheaper up up here in Chiangmai I think including construction works like this. However every bit of info helps and 2000 is another piece of the jigsaw....have you read "The Wisdom of Crowds?"

The public lane outside would be as wide as the space allows, near 4m, whilst, my private track would be single lane I think 2.5m. Traffic congestion estimate for my bit: 3 vehicles per day!!

If his 2000 baht per metre means per metre of 4 metre wide road then it would be for 4 square metres of pavement which would correspond to 500 baht per square metre....not so dissimilar to my estimate....2000 baht per square metre seems really high unless this includes alot of earth moving, drainage, and other work and not just the pavement.

[N&M]

I think from memory I was quoted 1500b per meter a few years ago on Samui, so where you are should be cheaper, that was for pretty much single lane or about 3m wide I think.

Readymix cement in Bkk is currently around 2600 per cubic meter and was quoted yesterday that mixing it yourself is about half of that.

Of course mixing it yourself you will need all the equipment, not that much rally as Thais do seem to be good at getting by with not much.

If you hired a bunch of guys at the daily labour rate and got all the equipment yourslef. You could probably get it done rather cheaply. But of course you then have to do all the ordering and work to get it happening.

I am doing this currently with some backfill for a house. the contractors price was a sever price gouge that we told him to forget it. We hired 9 young bucks from upcountry, paid their busfare, feed them, house them and ordered the fill ourselves and getting it done for 25 to 33% of the contractors price. Plus the problems are thrown in for free!!!!

[Jamesthai]

The estimate I was quoting for work was on Samui and up quite a steep mountain in places.

It was 2000 B per linear metre for a road approx 2.5 wide. This included clearing trees etc, preparing a sub-base which was pretty much just removing 200mm of topsoil then levelling and compacting the existing ballast type substrate and then concreting on top. There was the odd drainage channel but nothing more than that.

I dont know how prices compare with Chiangmai but its a budget and I know from bitter experience its worth budgeting high.

Negotiate with a local builder by going in at say 1000 B a linear metre and see what happens! Maybe less-especially if there are work hungry Burmese around. My experience with Thai house building is its more back of cigarette packet/finger in the air than Bills of Quantity when it comes to pricing.

Must go and hit ebay and find a copy of "The Wisdom of Crowds". On the other hand it could be "too may chefs..."

Good luck