Thread: Gravel roads 101

PS canopy, would you mind sharing what was your cost per Kilometer?

Originally Posted by canopy

I made a gravel road a kilometer long.

A fine looking road it is. Whats it look like today? No doubt keeping the jungle from encroaching is a study in continuous cutting back.

Did you build this road for commercial use or simple personal access to your property and house?

Thanks ChrisInCambo ! makes sense

Originally Posted by DrAndy

^ yes, and good luck when the rains come

Thanks. Note however my road is several years old. Looks as good as new and supports the heaviest vehicles like concrete trucks, backhoes, and fully loaded 20 wheel trucks. The most worrisome question for me was what would happen in the rainy season when all the farm vehicles drag mud from the fields onto the road on a daily basis. It seemed it could systematically bury the gravel under layer after layer of mud. To my surprise, the mud is temporary and simply washes away quickly.

On the other hand, my observations of gravel roads that do not meet the critical specifications I laid out deteriorate rapidly. There are many, many more road building areas that are also very good to adhere to that one can find by searching. I just gave some road building basics.

Originally Posted by ltnt

No doubt keeping the jungle from encroaching is a study in continuous cutting back.

Did you build this road for commercial use or simple personal access to your property and house?

Most of the road is public but it's purpose is to go to my land and extends inside there an additional several hundred meters. For the longer public part I hire a weed trimmer guy to cut the weeds on the shoulders every month. For the section on my property I hire people to manually pull weeds out since it doesn't get enough traffic to keep them at bay. Expensive, but more satisfying to me than poisons or leaving the weeds there.

Originally Posted by aircut

PS canopy, would you mind sharing what was your cost per Kilometer?

First keep in mind that in my case rock is terribly expensive because I live in the mountains so the delivery price to get to me is actually more expensive than the rock itself--that is a really painful cost hit. That's even using huge 20 wheel double trailer trucks. And I needed an enormous amount of rock since the road is not just 1 KM long but also 6-8M wide and 15 cm deep of rock. I hired trucks, tractors, back hoes, and rollers. If I do it again I would additionally want a grader and a bigger vibrating roller. Price for everything was 450K baht for 1 KM. Not that I expected any, but I got not a single baht and barely even a thank you from anyone along what used to be just a muddy path accessible only to 4 wheel drive vehicles parts of the year to a road some people hear about and drive there just to see it.

You absolutely need to know if any farmer will use the road. Once our local village built proper roads, the huge cane trucks started using the roads. They can weigh up to 20 Tonnes. Use 88mm minus for the road base and 13mm minus for the road surface. Use a compactor in 15cm lifts. Works best if you water it between the lifts.