Thai roads, now I know the truth

[seajae]

I was always sceptical about how good thai roads are made but today I witnessed just how bad it is. The land behind all my trees was bulldozed last week(was a swampy area) and all the newly levelled ground was actually mud/clay. This afternoon in came the concrete trucks and just started dumping the concrete on top of it, no formwork, no rio etc, just concrete on dried mud/clay. It was spread out to 2" to 3 " thick and the guys using a lump of wood from as nearby building site waved it over the concrete to remove any high spots, that was the finished job. If you walk on the levelled surface of the dirt you sink in slightly and it is cracking up but non of this mattered, all I could do was watch and piss myself laughing, I never realized how high tech they are here. I will give it at least a week before it starts to fall apart, it is supposed to be the new road into the estate(a continuation of an existing road), pretty piss poor but it does explain why the roads here are so bad.

[lungbing]

Yes, but if they made an excellent job of it to start with, then they wouldn't be called back to repair it in 6 months time and thus get paid again.

[Robby nz]

I suspect to use that as an example of how Thai roads are would be really stretching the imagination.

You said it is to an estate, does that mean it is a private road ?

I suspect whoever was given the job was given some sort of specs as to how the work was to be carried out and a budget for the job, probably insufficient.

I have seen a number public roads put in around here and they have all had mesh reinforcing and been done quite well, not excellent but then they are not main highways.

[wym]

Obviously RE developers standards vary widely and usually just do the minimum required to make a quick buck, pretty shoddy.

But IMO the public road works here are pretty world-class given Thailand's status as a developing nation.

Certainly better than any of its neighbors, at least on par with Malaysia.

[seajae]

it is a street in the owners estate and a continuation of an existing street in an older estate, I suppose I am used to seeing them built properly but after driving on local streets around the area I would hazzard a guess that it is not done by the local council? whatever but the owner of the estate. Saying this I have also seen them building a major roadway locally that goes to the port, the existing road has wheel rutts in it where the truck tyres have caused the bitumen to subside to form perfect tyre tracks so if this is how they do it then I can understand why it happens. In my younger days after finishing my apprenticeship and waiting to go into the army I worked on a road constructrion site so I do know what is required and it certainly isnt done like that here which is why they fall apart so quickly but when a big percentage of the allowed price is put in someones pocket and they use cheap crappy material and dont do it correctly anything is possible. Just feel sorry for anyone buying a house there as they will not have a road but a goat track to get to it.

[wym]

Most of us are smart enough to never buy, only rent.

[h90]

I saw a bigger (but well not that big) road made here, and I wondered what they expect, airplanes landing, tank exercises, nuclear war etc etc??

Thick concrete with a lot steel under tension in it (don't know the English word for it).

Close street to it they made also with concrete but just normal steel construction inside....so much steel it is more a steel road with concrete surface.....

Don't know how much cement is in the concrete and I didn't see much how they made it below the concrete but the concrete was good work.

[vtjforyou]

Most of us are smart enough to never buy, only rent.

One more time...

[mauGR1]

It's a new technique to slow down the traffic a bit.

[Chao Lao Beach]

Sometimes they use bamboo instead of steel, seems to work for a bit.

[wolfmanjack]

The government cement roads seem to hold up pretty well but the black top roads sure don't. When they made the new road along the canal in Hang Dong it needed repairing within a year after it was completed. The new road to my MIL's village needed completely redone within 2 years. After the road disintegrated you could see how thin the blacktop was with virtually no base material at all.

[Munger]

But IMO the public road works here are pretty world-class

"WORLD- CLASS", Are you for real ?

[Upnotover]

Certainly better than any of its neighbors, at least on par with Malaysia.

Have you been there? Maybe the roads near the Northern border are built to match the rubbish we have to drive on here, but for sure the roads up from Singapore to KL and across from there to Kuantan bear no resemblance to any of the roads I have driven on here.

[Suradit69]

Thai roads, now I know the truth

That's true. Now you know how every road in Thailand was constructed.

And using the same logic, here's the truth about ALL theaters in London. It happened at one theater, so it much be true for all of them.

Apollo theatre collapse injures more than 80 people in London's West End

Seven people seriously hurt after part of Shaftesbury Avenue theatre ceiling collapses on to balcony during performance

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/19/apollo-theatre-london-balcony

[connda]

You just noticed?

[Travelman868]

Yes, but if they made an excellent job of it to start with, then they wouldn't be called back to repair it in 6 months time and thus get paid again.

I presume this is a replacement for a village red road. Ahh by excellent job do you mean something like the multi billion ££ M25 in the UK

they have been repairing and extending it from the day it was opened.

Most of the red roads upgrades are carried out to a good standard. BUT sometimes it is the house owners who do the job and they have limited money.

[willyumiii]

The roads built by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in the Vietnam era seem to hold up pretty well.

[qdinthailand]

it is a street in the owners estate and a continuation of an existing street in an older estate, I suppose I am used to seeing them built properly but after driving on local streets around the area I would hazzard a guess that it is not done by the local council? whatever but the owner of the estate. Saying this I have also seen them building a major roadway locally that goes to the port, the existing road has wheel rutts in it where the truck tyres have caused the bitumen to subside to form perfect tyre tracks so if this is how they do it then I can understand why it happens. In my younger days after finishing my apprenticeship and waiting to go into the army I worked on a road constructrion site so I do know what is required and it certainly isnt done like that here which is why they fall apart so quickly but when a big percentage of the allowed price is put in someones pocket and they use cheap crappy material and dont do it correctly anything is possible. Just feel sorry for anyone buying a house there as they will not have a road but a goat track to get to it.

Ruts in the bitumen happen in lots of roads in the U.S, including Federal and State highways. Hot temps, heavy trucks, you get ruts. They're really noticeable when you are riding a motorcycle.

Doesn't mean squat about the quality of Thai road construction.

qdinthailand

[Doc46]

Sometimes they use bamboo instead of steel, seems to work for a bit.

555555555 555555 555555

[bbbbooboo]

lol......I've never really thought of them as "roads" in the majority of rural Thailand, perhaps a line of interconnecting potholes might be a better description

[Dogbarker]

I suspect to use that as an example of how Thai roads are would be really stretching the imagination.

You said it is to an estate, does that mean it is a private road ?

I suspect whoever was given the job was given some sort of specs as to how the work was to be carried out and a budget for the job, probably insufficient.

I have seen a number public roads put in around here and they have all had mesh reinforcing and been done quite well, not excellent but then they are not main highways.

I have seen a number of local rural roads look quite good .. reinforced then within a short speaceof time the irrigation drains are dredged using tracked vehicles that destroy what in effect were never designed for this type of work .. you can see and hear the roads crack under the weight as the excavator moves .. such a sad thing as many people cycle along these roads ... :-(

[Crazy chef 1]

The roads built by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in the Vietnam era seem to hold up pretty well.

same applies for the "autobahn" built by the germans some years earlier....

[lucjoker]

Most of us are smart enough to never buy, only rent.

One more time...

smart people buy land and sell it 5 years later for tripple price !

A house you make yourself ,or buy a crappy expensive one ,but land goes up while you watch it !

[Showbags]

Certainly not better than Malaysia as mentioned above.

But some roads and sections of other roads are outstanding...some sections up to the laos border at Nong khai are outstanding, the ring road I think it is from near Saraburi to past the airport..outstanding.

But other bits...well, not so great.

With the amount of trucks on the hwy's, take a look at how quickly the left lanes deteriorate....its all in the sub structure and prep....

[Rorri]

Robby nz, on 11 Feb 2014 - 20:42, said:

I suspect to use that as an example of how Thai roads are would be really stretching the imagination.

You said it is to an estate, does that mean it is a private road ?

I suspect whoever was given the job was given some sort of specs as to how the work was to be carried out and a budget for the job, probably insufficient.

I have seen a number public roads put in around here and they have all had mesh reinforcing and been done quite well, not excellent but then they are not main highways.

Robby, wake up from your dream, this is fairly typical, along with smooth river stones in stead of aggravate/gravel which means no surface for the cement to adhere to, within a week or two, you see the cement already lifting... if they use bitumen it is again low standard, even laying when the ground is wet, onto a surface that hasn't been compacted with a suitable material, eg crushed limestone. I've seen one road in Mukdahan where 12 months after being surfaced was worse to drive on that when it was an unsealed road. I think we have all seen the newly surfaced roads that look nice, but comes complete with dips and bumps and a week or two later potholes, which they fill with cement, but instead of a hole you now have a bloody big bump. Like in many things, Thais copy the west but lack the knowledge.

[Rorri]

wym, on 11 Feb 2014 - 21:44, said:

Most of us are smart enough to never buy, only rent.

Why would you "rent" a road. Strange post.

[Rorri]

Upnotover, on 12 Feb 2014 - 16:36, said:Upnotover, on 12 Feb 2014 - 16:36, said:

wym, on 11 Feb 2014 - 20:55, said:wym, on 11 Feb 2014 - 20:55, said:

Certainly better than any of its neighbors, at least on par with Malaysia.

Have you been there? Maybe the roads near the Northern border are built to match the rubbish we have to drive on here, but for sure the roads up from Singapore to KL and across from there to Kuantan bear no resemblance to any of the roads I have driven on here.

When I do my visa run from Mukdahan to Savannkhet the difference is quite noticeable, Lao might be communist but they can build better roads, and for some reason, they drive a hell of a lot better, except on the "wrong" side of the road.

[Rorri]

lucjoker, on 12 Feb 2014 - 19:10, said:

vtjforyou, on 12 Feb 2014 - 00:46, said:

wym, on 11 Feb 2014 - 21:44, said:

Most of us are smart enough to never buy, only rent.

One more time...

smart people buy land and sell it 5 years later for tripple price !

A house you make yourself ,or buy a crappy expensive one ,but land goes up while you watch it !

Um guys...what's this got to do with roads? Is it so hard to stick to the OPs posting. geez

[TPI]

In our Tambon I watched as a crew of rice farmers built a kilometer of public road. The formwork they used was from an old building site of different widths. The concrete was badly laid of various thicknesses and the different pours were not seperated by expansion joints. In order to give the effect of an expansion joint down the center of the road they pushed a piece of reo rod into the concrete (lengthwise).

Opposite people's driveways they lifted the formwork until it was 30cm above the concrete house driveway and then had the cheek to ask for B3000 to put in a "crossing" to the road!

All the villiage roads in this town look the same...disaster!

The highways collapse because the trucks that use them are overloaded by 100%. Instead of being 26 tonne max most are over 50 tonne! A truck 1 tonne overloaded does as much damage as 40,000 cars! That is why there're dips in the left hand lane and the roads are ribbed on the corners!

So there!

[EBlair48]

So take what you saw and apply it to every single endeavor in an entire country and you have .... Thailand !!