Thappraya Road – How crap is that road surface?

[Pattaya One]

Road crew in August laying the asphalt on Thappraya Road

It was with dismay that I noticed the “new” Thappraya Road needed repairing immediately we had a bout of heavy rain recently.

Shocking break-up of the obviously inadequate road surface

Surprise surprise. Not.

But the flooding damage is just the tip of the iceberg. Many sections of the “new” road are already damaged, pitted, potholed or uneven the whole way along it.

Quite simply, it’s a disgrace to roadbuilding.

But who cares.

Seeing the entirely predictable damage, and how little punishment the road can take from normal vehicle use, I browsed through some photos I took in August of this year, when the road crew were laying the road surface on Thappraya Road, to remind myself of how thin the surface asphalt really is.

Of course you can’t tell as you drive on it. It might be a metre thick for all we know.
Alas, it isn’t.

More like a couple of inches of who knows how weakly mixed, “Howmuchcanweskim” asphalt, splashed over an inadequately  reinforced base.

Are they butter knives they’re using to spread that dusting of asphalt with?

The finished product. A couple of inches deep. It probably needed repairing after this worker walked on it, it looks so thin.

Thinness itself might not be a barrier to a long life, as the asphalt might be super-strength mix, with added Kryptonite, but really, let’s face it, this is Pattaya, so it is probably what it looks like –a skimpy layer of “economy-mixed” asphalt.

I can’t help feeling that if they had wanted to do a proper job on Thappraya Road, and if anyone actually cared about it, or how it was built, they would have laid down concrete like they did in Pratamnak Road, in the section leading into town.

What the hell is this? A proper concrete road, with reinforced steel? Built to withstand the likely heavy usage on it? Sack whoever’s responsible immediately.

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