Floods, faulty design - not corruption - to blame for shoddy Sattahip road, contractor insists

[Rimmer]

Floods, faulty design - not corruption - to blame for shoddy Sattahip road, contractor insists

SATTAHIP:--The contractor who built a 6-million-baht road in Khet Udomsak that began falling apart a month after it opened insists that faulty design specifications and standing water - not corruption - are to blame for the street’s poor condition.

Chatchai Pongdee, lead contractor for Permanent Construction Co., said his company has begun repairs on Sukhumvit Soi 41, better known as Soi Khao Petch, in the Sattahip sub-district. Work was scheduled to be completed by the middle of the month.

Residents, led by community leader Nathachai Sangsri, protested May 8 over the sorry state of the street, which underwent reconstruction from Oct. 2 to Jan. 29 on a 5.97 million baht contract.

Three kilometers long and five meters wide, the road began to collapse and develop huge holes just a month after the contractor got paid, leading to suspicions of impropriety.

Villagers repeatedly filled in the holes with dirt, but the stop-gap measure did not work and residents demanded that the entire street be dug up and resurfaced by the contractor who did the faulty work.

Chatchai said that Soi Khao Petch is a perennial basin for storm runoff from surrounding hills. Shortly after the road was turned over to Khet Udomsak, Sattahip District was ravaged by several storms in a row, causing large quantities of water to flood the street and wash away the soil under the surface.

He blamed the district for giving him a faulty design specification that did not take into account flash flooding and standing water.

Despite appearances that his company took 6 million baht of public money and delivered a faulty project, he insisted that was not the case and there was no corruption involved in the deal. He said he can provide full transparency in his dealings with the sub-district for those who have any doubts.

- See more at: http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/floods-faulty-design-not-corruption-to-blame-for-shoddy-sattahip-road-contractor-insists-47276#sthash.gZrZIho7.dpuf

-- Pattaya Mail 2015-05-22

[NickJ]

Is that fresh cement layed down on the asphalt border?......well lets get a bunch of Four year olds to build the next road.

[NickJ]

Oh....when you build a road....and you know how.....this wouldnt happen.

[Thaddeus]

You can't stop rain from falling.

But who came up with the faulty design and who is responsible for the shoddy work.

The bloke pointing?

[Reigntax]

Maybe should be called the Not So Permanent Construction Co?

[mikebell]

I thought this was standard round here. Build a road then you have a job for life repairing/renewing it annually/monthly.

[oneday]

Heck, most road contractors in this country have no idea how to build a road that doesn't fall apart in a very short time and it's almost certainly due in part to corruption causing the companies to use sub-standard materials and processes.

Though I must say I'm fairly happy with many roads I have to drive on to get to our home in Kalasin, but highway 331 up to 304, which was fairly new or in really good condition about 5 years ago is starting to fall apart quite badly. It's becoming a nightmare to drive on.

[newnative]

Every road built in Pattaya in the past few years has faulty design. Thappraya--took forever to build and so horrible, especially the u turn lanes--or rather, lack of u turn lanes. Your car is stuck in the traffic lane when you make u turns--all of which are too tight. Ugly median and the road lanes are too narrow. Jomtien Second Road even worse--same problems as Thappraya but the stretch just past Lumpini Park Beach is literally falling apart. Part by Jomtien Immigration extremely bumpy--but it does serve to slow traffic to walking pace. Very poorly planned u turns--so bad most have been closed. Horrible sidewalks overgrown with weeds--hard to see there is a sidewalk there. Ugly, weed-filled medians except by the Riveria showroom--thank you Riveria for showing how nice a median can look!!! Storm drains have never been cleaned and large shrubs, weeds, and grass growing out of most of them. Anybody listening at City Hall?

[jackanapes]

a 6million baht road coming apart after 1 month and the contractor is blaming standing water and not corruption beggars belief he knew it was standing water why didn't he drain it off ?.

[Mudcrab]

a 6million baht road coming apart after 1 month and the contractor is blaming standing water and not corruption beggars belief he knew it was standing water why didn't he drain it off ?.

He built the road. He did not design it.

[orange31]

Wouldn't a professional contractor already know the designs were faulty before they built the road, and advise the district accordingly?

[cardinalblue]

Big problem in Thailand...lack of accountability on tradesmens' work...

I guess no product/service guarantee? Need a lemon policy...

[Ulic]

The contractor bids and builds according to the design specifications. Poor design from the

engineers and this is what you get. Water is often a problem in construction and proper

drainage is required. I don't know if this guy followed the engineers plans but he is front

and center for this article. What do the road engineers have to say about the construction

plans vs. the build quality.

[Eddy B]

To be honest when this guy won the contract and saw the plans, if he saw faults he should have called a meeting to point them out. He just did worked to what the designs he was received. He and the person who did the designs are both at fault. It's that simple. He took the money as did the planner and they did a piss poor job of it. They should be held accountable..............end of story!!

[balo]

Maybe they should bring someone from Bangkok over to build the roads here. Many good roads and highways without these problems.