Build your own Thai road drainage

Now most of us don't own enough land to warrant drainage on this scale but it maybe ok for mobi at his mobi mansion.

Anyway first off you need a big long ditch, this has to slope the way you want the water to go, preferably away from your land and house and towards somebody elses, the local Thai government officials will normally aim the drainage towards poorer areas and let them flood so you don't really want to be in one of them.

Next you need big concrete rings like these, size will depend on how much water you need to get rid of and how quickly.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ding_roads.JPG

These you just chuck in your ditch, a bit of cement between joins and your off to a good start.

Box Culverts are needed every now and again for the rain water to be able to drain into your concrete pipes, these also allow access for rats, snakes, dirt and rubbish, they also make great breeding grounds for cockroaches and mossies, generally between rainy seasons these will actually fill up with rubbish and dirt that the first major rains will flood the area, your local city hall will act shocked and amazed and vow it will never happen again, well until next year anyway.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_7.JPG

As my house is built about 2m above the road level, I had these pipes put under my driveway. Of course the monkeys filled in the dirt, compacted it, laid the concrete forms -- all in sight of the five concrete tubes waiting to go under the driveway. I knew drainage would be an issue because my property drains gently toward a very large lake 1/2 K away. My driveway would effectively block about half (1.5 rai) of that drainage.

After heavy rains, I still get significant puddles in my front yard, but those should decrease with time. Mother nature levels everything.

We have exactly as is done in the OP, there is a drainage box at the north end of the pipe adjacent to our lake/pond, about 30 meters, in front of my House is another and about every 30 meters all the way down the road/street going south.
The Thai have all hauled in dirt from wherever ponds are being dug and dumped it on their lots to raise the land above flood plain, this dirt washes into the boxes every time it rains and now the pipe is full of dirt and no water goes thru the pipe, and there is no machinery in Thailand to clear the hundreds of yards of dirt from inside the pipe, so for the last 7 years it is just an expensive, buried concrete pipe full of dirt.

Now they have changed the plan, they dig a ditch along beside the concrete roadway, cement line this ditch with a concrete liner with a lip along the length of the ditch, make slotted concrete covers to cover the ditch and water is supposed to run thru the slots and carry on down the ditch, in theory it works, but at first rain the ditch fills with mud and it remains there for a year or so until they can remove the covers and shovel it out, another Thai fuk up.

Now as you can see in the above picture the box culvert is way too low and the opening way too big, so time for some formwork to make it smaller and raise it to within a few inches of what the road height is going to be, in Thailand the height is just pure guess work as you can see when driving down the road and your wheels dropping into drains that are way too low or banging off of drains that are way too high, although the high ones do have the benifit of not filling up with rubbish and silt so quickly, but also water doesn't seem to go into the high ones so well.

NB; if any Thai road works civil engineers are reading this it is always best to place the drains at the lowest point on the road, yes I realise this causes more maintenance in the long run due to the drains filling up with rubbish and that, but if they are maintained it can lead to less flooding and flood water problems, maybe something worth thinking about on your next road building job.

Form work being put into place.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_4.JPG

Rebar being set up.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_2.JPG

Here we are with all the formwork and rebar in place, now all we need is some concrete.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_1.JPG

Here's the concrete lorry in action.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_1.JPG

Pour the false base first and any excess concrete can be chucked in the form for the sides.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_7.JPG

Here we have the finished product, well that stage of the work is finished, notice there is rebar still sticking out the top, this is for the next stage.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_3.JPG

As you can see in the above picture there has been dirt chucked in the surround of the drain to raise the level, this is for the curb, here they are doing the form work for the base of the curb, or the curb footing, although it aint really much of a footing so to speak.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u..._roads_1~0.JPG

Time to fit the grating for the road.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_3.JPG

Not a very impressive beam, the earth isn't compacted and the steel rebar is tiny, shouldn't last too long and then they will get the new contract to rebuild it all again, best way to make sure you get repeat work I suppose, make sure the old job falls apart.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_1.JPG

Still it don't look too bad, plus the steel grates are fixed so the scrap merchants can't nick them and sell them for scrap, could save a few motor cyclist lives as grating over big holes works better at night than some old branch sticking out of an open hole.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_2.JPG

T'was a God awful mess in front of your place the last time I was in Patters. Now I know why. Hope its resolved by the weekend as its big golf weekend there.

Noted the little red roller skate was parked away somewhere safe with all the somchais working in the area.

E. G.

What does a concrete worker earn per hour , and what does concrete
cost and what measurement do the thia use, not square yard , would it be square meter? thanks farmer

Yes I left the car in the banks car park.
The company that got this contract is from Sri Racha so the workers are probably on 190baht perday.
Concrete is ordered by the cubic meter and starts at around 1,700baht per cubic meter.

Okay time to weld on the other drain frame and start setting up the form work for the actual kerb stone.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...hailand_03.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...hailand_05.JPG

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...hailand_06.JPG

Time to finish off this thread and these drains, put your formwork up for the last bit, pour your concrete and your away :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_2.JPG

Now all we need is the road repaired :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...drainage_1.JPG

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Now all we need is the road repaired :)

---

I am sure we will see pictrue when that finally happens.

If it takes them aslong as it has done in South Pattaya the picture will be in a couple of year, probably just before they decide to re dig up the road to run new water pipes or something like that.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u.../drainage1.jpg
This road floods horribly every time there's a little rain. Over the last couple of years many "fixes" have been put in place; all inadequate. Of course, no one thinks about it until it does rain. So, these poor workers are trying to build a drainage ditch while the thing is flooded.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u.../drainage2.jpg
No fun to work here. The ditch was full when I ran by this morning, but it looks like they managed to pump some out to get the work done.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u.../drainage3.jpg
Not far away, but on a more main road is this persistent flood. I normally run through this area, but abandon when it's knee deep like this. On the left you can see a drainage that was put in about a year ago. It can't handle the volume of flood water.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u.../drainage4.jpg
The whole problem is caused by the moo baan you can see in the back to the left. It was built right over a major wetland drainage area with no thought to somehow diverting the water. As a result, it is concentrated in this area where it spills across the road.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u.../drainage5.jpg
Much of it just goes over the road an in to this natural channel on the other side. But, the owner of this land has pretty well blocked it up, so most of the water turns left and flows down the road. It seems to me they should build a culvert under the road at this point and let the water flow down the way it's been flowing for probably hundreds of years. (At least until the moo baan was built.)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u.../drainage6.jpg
Looking back the other way. Moo baan on the left, natural stream bed on the right.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by buad hai

Looking back the other way. Moo baan on the left, natural stream bed on the right.

---

Looks like Samui. Actually looks like everywhere on Samui.
The peak of the rain season has arrived now so this is what I expect to see for the coming two month..

Just thought I would add these drains to the thread, these are being built in Jomtien for a new village, for the land area size I think it will probably have drainage problems in the future but Soi Thepprasit does anyway and who cares if a few houses get flooded anyway :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...oad_drains.jpg

Nice run though.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...d_drainage.jpg

so something like that would work a treat for house drainage, maybe on a smaller scale and into a lake or pond, or just onto/into the road :)