Roads in Thailand collapse in wake of deadly drought

[smotherb]

Ah.... so it's the farmers' fault that the roads collapse. I always thought it was the responsibility of the engineers to design roads that could withstand different kinds of environmental impact. How silly of me

the walls of my house crack and water leak in after 10 years. Of course not the engineers or the construction workers fault.

It is because of the high temperature differences in Thailand.

I come from the Alps we can get -30 and +40 Celsius in extreme years, that is 70 degree. Central Thailand maybe 20-45.

We have building that are now 1000 years old and still no leakage.

Yeah, but your buildings weren't built by Thais.

[bheard]

What amazed me was that in the first photo of the road subsidence published was that many Thai people found they were unable to resist the temptation to walk down onto the broken sections of road.

Lots of 'em.

Nup, don't worry about the possibility of any further sudden subsidence . . .

[finnomick]

I wonder if they actually closed the road or just marked the cracks with sacks so as to show where not to drive. And, maybe they'll wait until the rainy season to see if the roads go back into their original positions......

[PETERTHEEATER]

......Roads collapse in wake of deadly drought.....

The Nation

Deadly drought? How many people have died of thirst so far?

[Ulic]

In engineers' parlance Thailand has a lot of what's called "expansive soil". Clay expands and contracts with moisture and drying. That needs to be considered and dealt with when building anything. This is most likely why buildings crack too. Seajae is right. You can't just dump native soil into an area and build on it.

When clay gets wet and expands it will also create that pressure and pump up into base rock and lubricate it. There needs to be compaction of the base dirt, a layer of geotextile fabric to keep mud from migrating up, and then layers of rock placed and rolled for compaction. Drainage needs to be engineered into it. I haven't seen that done yet.

Cheers

TYP.jpg

Have they even heard of geotextile fabric in Thailand ? Not sure I have ever seen it used here, and I have driven through lots of roadworks over the years.

When I was in the road construction business in Australia years ago we used it a lot, for very good reason, especially in wet areas.

Well, I have never heard of geotextile fabric before, But I have now. I try to learn something every day.

Now I know just a little bit more about road construction. I just wish the guys engineering/building

the beach roads in Pattaya and Jomtien would consult with Thai Visa guys. Maybe they would

get things done right the first time instead of having to try, try, again.

[nithisa78]

everyone stay safe.

[Thai at Heart]

Deadly drought????

[slapout]

a thai can do no wrong, accidents happen due to weather, rain, wind, temp, brightness of sun , dark, moonlight or lack of, etc and be sure and throw in supernatural,. Not consulting or giving enough to monks never seems to be mentioned but the unspoken thoughts are there. First Solution, go to temple, make donation, buy a widget, feed the undernurished layabouts. the latter is good to change the bad luck to a more favorable course. might have to wait a lifetime but thats the way it is precieved by many.

Lately it seems the neighbor boys (Countries) are getting blamed for the majority of bad montary decisions, disrespect, illegal business, moral decay,etc due to the overwhelming number of fault free thais, lifestyle. But the thai are not too proud to ask for a freebie handout from just about anyone they encounter.

[Strangebrew]

Thailand hub of diverting blame from those that are at fault.

[TheWizardofRnR]

We all know its whoever built these roads that probably cut corners leading to their roads cracking and builders lying !

[jcisco]

Come to think of it, the walls of the canal, are they driven piles or what? Cause it appears that canal wall as actually rotated inwards. Surely the piles are quite deep say 10 Meters below the channel in depth so as to avoid slipping. That is a major concern, I had assumed that the canals were all watertight, does anyone actually know how they constructed the canals, I'm just curious.