Very easy to improve the road quality in Thailand:

Make sure absolutely no Thai is behind a steering wheel or handle bar. Never ever!!!! That would improve the situation drasticlly. Even if they had German Autobahns, they would turn them into hell too.

I ride that every 90 days; nothing too terrible...

Tak to Mae Sot. Especially after/during a rain.

Sent - how is not that important...

Very easy to improve the road quality in Thailand:

Make sure absolutely no Thai is behind a steering wheel or handle bar. Never ever!!!! That would improve the situation drasticlly. Even if they had German Autobahns, they would turn them into hell too.

please dont talk nonsense.

you are asking them to leave the wheels and handle bars in their own country with the roads made by the tax cut from their own salaries?

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang - totally agree. Still working on it. And there's a section where the road is so quiet - don't think we saw a car for so long that I was convinced I'd turned off the road and down an even minor road in to a remote national park...still enjoyed though.

the 11 is awful I'd say 50 times worse than 117 which i use regularly, pretty much any road that runs through Phichit is terrible, wonder where all there road money goes.....

...and when they build a new section it's the same low quality construction method that doesn't last!

I think it's the truck traffic vibrating the road sub-surface which causes cracks in the road base then a hydraulic pumping action drawing the water into the cracks and up to where it can turn the road base to mush. From there it's down hill as the bitumen just collapses.

It is always the overloaded trucks, they destroy the highways in the states as well. A friend of mine visited a while back and he had worked for the New Mexico highway department as a project engineer for about 30 years. We were on a drive around Thailand and all he could say about safety around road work was, it just isn't right. As he said its the water if there is any crack or hole in the surface water will get in and break down the base and work on the adhesion of the oil and rock of the asphalt. In other words nothing can stand up to water once it gets in at least in Thailand they do not have to worry about the freeze- thaw cycle

To break down the base you first need to have a base. Most roads here are laid overnight on compacted soil.

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang They have been working on it for what seems like years

For dangerous highways, probably the Hill from Kathu to Patong and the other way as well!!! and when its raining even worse

Out of country but still SE Asia

Udom Maxi to Laung Prabng Laos

Phonsavan to site 2 ( couldn't make it thru ) Laos 5555

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang

North & south sections are nice.

Middle: barely passable

the 11 is awful I'd say 50 times worse than 117 which i use regularly, pretty much any road that runs through Phichit is terrible, wonder where all there road money goes.....

...and when they build a new section it's the same low quality construction method that doesn't last!

I think it's the truck traffic vibrating the road sub-surface which causes cracks in the road base then a hydraulic pumping action drawing the water into the cracks and up to where it can turn the road base to mush. From there it's down hill as the bitumen just collapses.

It is always the overloaded trucks, they destroy the highways in the states as well. A friend of mine visited a while back and he had worked for the New Mexico highway department as a project engineer for about 30 years. We were on a drive around Thailand and all he could say about safety around road work was, it just isn't right. As he said its the water if there is any crack or hole in the surface water will get in and break down the base and work on the adhesion of the oil and rock of the asphalt. In other words nothing can stand up to water once it gets in at least in Thailand they do not have to worry about the freeze- thaw cycle

To break down the base you first need to have a base. Most roads here are laid overnight on compacted soil.

actually not true, on rides and drives around the country have seen very good rock base being laid down and compacted, maybe on some of the country roads this is what they do but was on Highway 12 a few months ago and they were doing major road work and no over night paving

Tak to Mae Sot. Especially after/during a rain.

I don't know about after the rain, but the actual road surface is good and is well marked. It's the driving standards that are dreadful, but again that applies to any road where the majority of drivers are Thai.

Tak to Mae Sot. Especially after/during a rain.

I don't know about after the rain, but the actual road surface is good and is well marked. It's the driving standards that are dreadful, but again that applies to any road where the majority of drivers are Thai.

I think the discussion was that after rain, all the oil from those trucks that leak like sieves, is brought up to the surface and makes it treacherous. Luckily I haven't had the misfortune of riding that particular road after a rain, but I have been on others that remind me of black ice back home.

Chiang may to pai

863 curves, but some thaiwoman drives quickly with 80 kmh on motorbike

Local bus full of black smoke

And most Thais always on the break

Then you can breath the smelling rubber, if you break with your engine

Instead of always foot on brake

Nothing would be burn and smell but Thais don't know..

Tak to Mae Sot. Especially after/during a rain.

I don't know about after the rain, but the actual road surface is good and is well marked. It's the driving standards that are dreadful, but again that applies to any road where the majority of drivers are Thai.

I think the discussion was that after rain, all the oil from those trucks that leak like sieves, is brought up to the surface and makes it treacherous. Luckily I haven't had the misfortune of riding that particular road after a rain, but I have been on others that remind me of black ice back home.

Yes, I see where your coming from.

PAtong - the whole of it

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang They have been working on it for what seems like years

For dangerous highways, probably the Hill from Kathu to Patong and the other way as well!!! and when its raining even worse

Out of country but still SE Asia

Udom Maxi to Laung Prabng Laos

Phonsavan to site 2 ( couldn't make it thru ) Laos 5555

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang

North & south sections are nice.

Middle: barely passable

We did this route back in May this year. The road from Mae Sot north follows the river and is a lovely drive. About an hour south of Mae Sariang the road leaves the river and goes over a high hill range and thats when the road becomes very quiet, and when we were there they had stripped the road surface and were relaying it on an area of very difficult uphill +180degree bends...the 4wd came in handy. After the roadworks, the road descends toward Mae Sariang and the road got narrower and narrower (the jungle growing in). It was quite nerve-wracking for a while (in particular, were we lost, had we turned off the main highway on to a smaller road, as we saw no other traffic). Does anybody know if they've finished the roadworks now? How is the route now.

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang They have been working on it for what seems like years

For dangerous highways, probably the Hill from Kathu to Patong and the other way as well!!! and when its raining even worse

Out of country but still SE Asia

Udom Maxi to Laung Prabng Laos

Phonsavan to site 2 ( couldn't make it thru ) Laos 5555

Mae Sot to Mae Sariang

North & south sections are nice.

Middle: barely passable

We did this route back in May this year. The road from Mae Sot north follows the river and is a lovely drive. About an hour south of Mae Sariang the road leaves the river and goes over a high hill range and thats when the road becomes very quiet, and when we were there they had stripped the road surface and were relaying it on an area of very difficult uphill +180degree bends...the 4wd came in handy. After the roadworks, the road descends toward Mae Sariang and the road got narrower and narrower (the jungle growing in). It was quite nerve-wracking for a while (in particular, were we lost, had we turned off the main highway on to a smaller road, as we saw no other traffic). Does anybody know if they've finished the roadworks now? How is the route now.

Travelled through that road from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot via Mae Sariang late last year (in November). Absolutely horrible stretches south of Mae Sam Laeb, which is about 30km south of Mae Sariang. Then a beautiful, though relatively short piece of tarmac that was recently finished (it's a bit winding, but is quite easy to maneuver if you're an experienced driver) before deteriorating again. Road quality becomes acceptable starting from Ban Tha Song Yang, 122km north of Mae Sot onwards, although there are still washed out sections yet to repaired, years after landslides washed those sections away, although luckily the affected sections are cordoned off. One such section (probably the most dangerous one) is located some 50km north of Mae Sot just after the refugee camp, if coming from the north. Very little traffic between Ban Tha Song Yang and Mae Sariang, but did see a large group (about 25-30 riders) of Malaysian registered motorcycles heading north, perhaps they had just come back from a tour of Myanmar (re-entering Thailand via Mae Sot) or if not, they were doing a tour of secondary northern Thai roads. I'd be curious to find out if the roadworks have been finished yet but my feeling is probably not, based on my previous journey along that road almost a year earlier when the situation was much the same. Only the short newly finished section of tarmac where they widened the road south of Mae Sam Laeb has been completed relative to the previous year, otherwise no changes.