Pavement Of Streets

[swissie]

I would like to know who decides what dirt roads are being paved or not in rural Thailand.

I know of dirt roads that were paved around here for miles on end and if there are 3 cars that use such roads per day, it's already "high traffic".

On the other hand, I live on a dirt road with very heavy traffic. (It connects 2 paved main roads). For 2 years I hear, that the road would be paved "soon". Nothing ever happens.

So again: Who decides witch road will be paved in any given district?

- Is it possibly just a question of "tea-money"? I wouldn't be surprised.

Thanks & cheers.

[Totster]

I think within the village it come down to the Poo Yai Baan / Or Bor Tor, or the Tessabaan. The rural roads come under the rural roads department of the province (I think)

totster:)

Edited June 10, 2013 by Totster

[jcb2001]

You must live on my road! Same problem, been saying next year for over 6 years. And, (whoever's responsible) does not even maintain the road. It becomes very dangerous for motorcycles during the dry season with sand pits on the road.

News 3 reporters came out and did a story on our dirt road. My wife also got a petition started by home owners in the area to have the road paved, but it never happened.

Good luck on your road.

[roiet]

I think within the village it come down to the Poo Yai Baan / Or Bor Tor, or the Tessabaan. The rural roads come under the rural roads department of the province (I think)

totster:)

Yes, correct. The money is another problem. At the time of Thaksin a 30 km rural road south of Roi-et suddenly gained attention and was paved. Reason: Thaksin visited a small village in that area and the governor of Roi-et province arranged pavement. Another example: The rich owner of a home builder and cement shop in a small town won the local election. Reason: he paved a lot of dirt roads before the election (using his own money).

[Totster]

I think within the village it come down to the Poo Yai Baan / Or Bor Tor, or the Tessabaan. The rural roads come under the rural roads department of the province (I think)

totster:)

Yes, correct. The money is another problem. At the time of Thaksin a 30 km rural road south of Roi-et suddenly gained attention and was paved. Reason: Thaksin visited a small village in that area and the governor of Roi-et province arranged pavement. Another example: The rich owner of a home builder and cement shop in a small town won the local election. Reason: he paved a lot of dirt roads before the election (using his own money).

Completely agree, works both ways also,

Recently in the village next to mine a new access road was planned and approved into the village, it would have allowed better access to fields and a good idea.. however a substantial land owner who didn't want to give up a couple of metres of land (with compensation) to allow it wasn't happy, suddenly Poo Yai Baan was bt100,000 better off and no road.. even after many others had felled trees etc to prepare for the road........

totster

[xen]

It puzzles me too. In the village my FIL's lives there is no paved road into the village. There are 3 or 4 roads in but they all stop about i kilometre from the village . It takes quite a while to navigate around, between or through the huge potholes to get to his house which is paved once you get into the village. I do understand why it is necessary to have a huge 4 wheel drive in that area.

[ignis]

You must live on my road! Same problem, been saying next year for over 6 years. And, (whoever's responsible) does not even maintain the road. It becomes very dangerous for motorcycles during the dry season with sand pits on the road.

News 3 reporters came out and did a story on our dirt road. My wife also got a petition started by home owners in the area to have the road paved, but it never happened.

Good luck on your road.

Be careful on what you wish for.......... a tarmac road is not the be all and end all......

7km from the main road to my Village was a dirt road, from time to time trucks would dump a loads of hardcore down, washed away when rained, 4 years later all the 13 km road to next bigger road was tarmac, but how ? appeared they came with even more hardcore and then used the tarmac machine to cover... Now 6 years on at this moment re tarmac is again under way, this is done at least every year, the 2 ends about 2 km in of the road where re done much better after the 2011 floods, made much higher + had drains......... the drains were higher than the tarmac, the road is higher then the odd shops and houses........ at this moment as I said they are re doing the whole length, the area nearest to main road with a few shops they have done ...... it is now 4 tarmac levels higher again, now the drains are well below the road level.. Are they going to do the whole road 4 levels of tarmac higher ? they just stopped each layer 4 big bumps so guess yes as not smoothed down

Because the edge of the road keeps breaking on the rest of this road, they have another strip each side....... again very odd in some places this strip is 2 meters wide, there are a couple of houses [were on the edge of the old road before widening] that are now in the road, and of course the 7 bridges are still the same.......... So the road is at least 1 meter higher than the fields, hardcore dumped by the truck load then loads of sand rolled and then tarmac = the new part has great holes in, craters in places, edges broken and fallen into the fields, and the workers are only 100 meters past.. we have had some rain.. it is raining now.. the mind boggles what is the point ?

So in 10 years here would say that the road was better for the 1st 4years, at least a dirt road people drive slow, the road was not used as a short cut..

Guess is same with many Village roads, most are the same around here, had they spend the money to build them correct in the 1st place we would not have road repairs for 9 months of the road every year

[longstebe]

Mine stopped about 50 feet short of my house. That was about 2 year ago.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[isanbirder]

When I first arrived in Buriram five years ago, the 8 kms from Krasang were a dirt road. After a year to 18 months, this road was surfaced, and for a short while we had a lovely road. Then, after about six months, the potholes started to appear. Now they are so bad that the cars all zigzag to avoid them. Heavy lorries just go straight over them and make them worse.

This, I suspect is normal here.

[khwaibah]

In my wifes villege they have completed aproxitmaly 4 km of 8 inch thick concret roads. They voted for the correct person....

[CTO]

In my wifes villege they have completed aproxitmaly 4 km of 8 inch thick concret roads. They voted for the correct person....

Same situation, over about 4 years the village has gone from dust to concrete roads, with buffers every so many meters to stop cracking from heat expansion.

Roads lasting really well, unlike the tarmac ones that dissolve in rains as they never go deep enough or build them right way.

Taken a number of years as village fund financed and not enough to do the whole village in one go,

[jcb2001]

You must live on my road! Same problem, been saying next year for over 6 years. And, (whoever's responsible) does not even maintain the road. It becomes very dangerous for motorcycles during the dry season with sand pits on the road.

News 3 reporters came out and did a story on our dirt road. My wife also got a petition started by home owners in the area to have the road paved, but it never happened.

Good luck on your road.

Be careful on what you wish for.......... a tarmac road is not the be all and end all......

7km from the main road to my Village was a dirt road, from time to time trucks would dump a loads of hardcore down, washed away when rained, 4 years later all the 13 km road to next bigger road was tarmac, but how ? appeared they came with even more hardcore and then used the tarmac machine to cover... Now 6 years on at this moment re tarmac is again under way, this is done at least every year, the 2 ends about 2 km in of the road where re done much better after the 2011 floods, made much higher + had drains......... the drains were higher than the tarmac, the road is higher then the odd shops and houses........ at this moment as I said they are re doing the whole length, the area nearest to main road with a few shops they have done ...... it is now 4 tarmac levels higher again, now the drains are well below the road level.. Are they going to do the whole road 4 levels of tarmac higher ? they just stopped each layer 4 big bumps so guess yes as not smoothed down

Because the edge of the road keeps breaking on the rest of this road, they have another strip each side....... again very odd in some places this strip is 2 meters wide, there are a couple of houses [were on the edge of the old road before widening] that are now in the road, and of course the 7 bridges are still the same.......... So the road is at least 1 meter higher than the fields, hardcore dumped by the truck load then loads of sand rolled and then tarmac = the new part has great holes in, craters in places, edges broken and fallen into the fields, and the workers are only 100 meters past.. we have had some rain.. it is raining now.. the mind boggles what is the point ?

So in 10 years here would say that the road was better for the 1st 4years, at least a dirt road people drive slow, the road was not used as a short cut..

Guess is same with many Village roads, most are the same around here, had they spend the money to build them correct in the 1st place we would not have road repairs for 9 months of the road every year

I have no problem with a dirt road in front of my home. Paving it would be nice, but at least, "maintain it". The problem is that no one takes any responsibility for the maintenance of the road. Road maintenance can be as infrequent as often as every 2 or 3 years here. A dirt road requires a lot more frequent maintenance than a paved road., Grading is needed every couple of month to keep it accessible and safe to cars, trucks, and motorcycles and even bicycles.

[chuenyongman]

No names ,No pack drill.

Where I live the man or company who "Wins" the contract has to give the politician around 30% of the of the money that the road is going to cost. That means the road will be inferior so the road will be requiring doing again before too long. There is too much graft and money going onto the wrong pockets.

[Totster]

No names ,No pack drill.

Where I live the man or company who "Wins" the contract has to give the politician around 30% of the of the money that the road is going to cost. That means the road will be inferior so the road will be requiring doing again before too long. There is too much graft and money going onto the wrong pockets.

My god !!! Really... ?

totster

[Always18]

When I first arrived in Buriram five years ago, the 8 kms from Krasang were a dirt road. After a year to 18 months, this road was surfaced, and for a short while we had a lovely road. Then, after about six months, the potholes started to appear. Now they are so bad that the cars all zigzag to avoid them. Heavy lorries just go straight over them and make them worse.

This, I suspect is normal here.

Yes, quite normal but there is an extra twist to the scam of the annual pot-holes.

Every year the village receives funding (from somewhere I know not) to "maintain" the roads i.e. repair the potholes (a large chunk of which is skimmed off by the village headman).................at the start of every dry season a gang of locals duly patch up the holes but deliberately shoddily because they want to be paid for doing the same work EVERY year - so the potholes always reappear during the rainy season.

Bit of a problem this year, however, as the headman pocketed the ENTIRE amount of money allocated to the village - not a penny was left for the annual repair fiasco and this did cause rumblings of discontent among those expecting their annual employment...............not to mention bigger, deeper and more dangerous holes we now have to navigate around!

Corruption is apparently OK if it's shared around............

[winstonc]

how ironic where we are in ubon we have a dirt road in front of us,that is just being tarmacked today never before apparently because part of the dirt road goes past an asoke temple who are definatly not red shirts,my wife works there,so after 20 years its getting done but they wont say how much is going to be done,,amazing isnt it,every year they lay on a festival,and sell everything less than half price thousands come every day for the week,they are very popular with said reds but only for 7 days,,they really are take take,,,,oh well im rambling sorry,,,,,

[comserve]

I think within the village it come down to the Poo Yai Baan / Or Bor Tor, or the Tessabaan. The rural roads come under the rural roads department of the province (I think)

totster:)

Count yourself lucky. Once it is paved, then 3 months and the pot holes start appearing & it's worse than it was before!

[Totster]

I think within the village it come down to the Poo Yai Baan / Or Bor Tor, or the Tessabaan. The rural roads come under the rural roads department of the province (I think)

totster:)

Count yourself lucky. Once it is paved, then 3 months and the pot holes start appearing & it's worse than it was before!

I didn't comment on the quality...

totster

[selftaopath]

Very important and interesting question. My bet is as is so typical in Land of Scams (LOS) it's all about money. What is also so disappointing is many roads are paved and w/in weeks/months they are full of holes, humps. I wonder if it's poor work or does a portion of the materials go to someone else and a private pocket?

[Totster]

Very important and interesting question. My bet is as is so typical in Land of Scams (LOS) it's all about money. What is also so disappointing is many roads are paved and w/in weeks/months they are full of holes, humps. I wonder if it's poor work or does a portion of the materials go to someone else and a private pocket?

Come on now.. you know the answer without us telling you....

totster

[winstonc]

as mt previous post,,well they started laying the brand new road,and they have now stopped after 55metres fantastic ,,,starting again next year ,,,,,,

[ableguy]

You must live on my road! Same problem, been saying next year for over 6 years. And, (whoever's responsible) does not even maintain the road. It becomes very dangerous for motorcycles during the dry season with sand pits on the road.

News 3 reporters came out and did a story on our dirt road. My wife also got a petition started by home owners in the area to have the road paved, but it never happened.

Good luck on your road.

its simply about where money can be made nobody gives a damn about who is inconvenianced, never seen the footpath bridges across highways in the middle of nowhere ??? roads that lead to nowhere ?. On the road from BKK to Hua Hin they are now building a massive U turn bridge in open country side 100 meters from a U turn gap that is just the same as many others on this road. also have a foot bridge in the middle of nowhere.

[swissie]

When I first arrived in Buriram five years ago, the 8 kms from Krasang were a dirt road. After a year to 18 months, this road was surfaced, and for a short while we had a lovely road. Then, after about six months, the potholes started to appear. Now they are so bad that the cars all zigzag to avoid them. Heavy lorries just go straight over them and make them worse.

This, I suspect is normal here.

Yes, quite normal but there is an extra twist to the scam of the annual pot-holes.

Every year the village receives funding (from somewhere I know not) to "maintain" the roads i.e. repair the potholes (a large chunk of which is skimmed off by the village headman).................at the start of every dry season a gang of locals duly patch up the holes but deliberately shoddily because they want to be paid for doing the same work EVERY year - so the potholes always reappear during the rainy season.

Bit of a problem this year, however, as the headman pocketed the ENTIRE amount of money allocated to the village - not a penny was left for the annual repair fiasco and this did cause rumblings of discontent among those expecting their annual employment...............not to mention bigger, deeper and more dangerous holes we now have to navigate around!

Corruption is apparently OK if it's shared around............

As the OP I want to come back on this. I may never see my road paved during my lifetime,

BUT: A very nearby village got their main road paved some 4 years ago. 500 Meters going through the village and then accessing a major road, The 500 Meters going through the village are now a obstacle- course because of the pot-holes. Everybody not happy.

I was bold enough to suggest that whenever a pot-whole starts to emerge, the homeowners bordering the road might want to fill in the pot-holes as a community effort. If necessary, fill it in with some left-over cement. In other words: A minimal effort as far as money and labor is concerned.

What I got in return were some blank stares and mumblings like "our land is our concern, but the road is not our land!"

Those are the moments, when I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Cheers.

Edited June 16, 2013 by swissie