Thread: Gravel roads 101

Hello folks,
i am thrilled. i have just purchased a plot of land. the road leading to the land is a mud road. and i want to pave a gravel road. there is a nearby source that will sell a truckload of gravel for 200baht, can anyone offer his own experience on making a 300meter gravel road? what size of stones to use? how to best build it? what was your cost or any thing else you might wish to share.

the land for the road is public and i have the permission of the tessaban, they wont however at this stage make the road themselves .....

thanks for any input

You mean, you purchased a plot of land in your partners name and you can stay there until you have a falling out. ?

Originally Posted by terry57

You mean, you purchased a plot of land in your partners name and you can stay there until you have a falling out. ?

not even close, do you have anything constructive to add ?

Grade the existing road so it has drainage.
Lay down a large rock bed topped with 2 to 3 cm of smaller gravel that has some fines mixed with it. Getting access to a roller to compact it may be difficult in the boonies.
Putting a geotextile under it may help if the existing material is clay and tends to turn to mush in the wet.
Cracked gravel and rocks are better than rounded pebbles.

Thnak you necron99, do you know by any mean a websource in thai or english where i can find diagrams and other specs

building a gravel road - Google Search

thanks!

Originally Posted by aircut

source that will sell a truckload of gravel for 200baht, can anyone offer his own experience on making a 300meter gravel road?

That's a pretty decent price for crushed rock. I think your intentions at present are to utilize this road as a service entry use during your home construction? Just thinking out loud, do you really need to prepare this access road to a high standard during the construction phase of your home? Wouldn't you be money ahead if you waited till the end of your build to make this improvement?

Depending on you're location, "rainy season," can vary a lot depending on your location. If in Issan perhaps you really don't need to worry so much about it destroying your road access? The red clay, hard pan, of Asia is pretty much durable all year around, just dusty.

Good point ltnt. I think you are correct and i should upgrade the 300 meter starch after the house is build. any comparisons on thumb benchmarking of costs for gravel vs. asphalt vs concrete roads.
thanks!!

If you are looking for a permanent solution it is going to be orders of magnitude more expensive. Concrete at 10cm with rebar which would probably handle light traffics but would crack with any trucks in the wet would be 300m x 3m x 10cm so 90 cubic meters at ~ 1800 baht per so 162,000 plus labour and rebar. That's 800 loads of gravel, or 4000 cubic meters at your price of 200 per 5 ton truck.
Just keep laying gravel, eventually after many wets it will be a meter deep and still cheaper than concrete.
Might be worth finding he local hot mix contractor and seeing what a spray and roll during your last gravel layer would be worth.

Do a picture thread on it haircut please

Follow Necron 99's advice, you can't go wrong. I'd still wait til I'm through with the build.

My advice? Do not do anything to the road until your home is built. Trust me as long as you are paying the suppliers they will deliver.

Actually, eventually they will show you where the road needs to be...

Originally Posted by hillbilly

Trust me as long as you are paying the suppliers they will deliver.

unless the road turns into a quagmire and the trucks get stuck

Then one puts enough gravel into the road to keep everything moving smoothly. It ain't rocket science shit...

Been there, down that and bought the t-shirt.

^Why don't you point this guy to you're building thread. Pretty solid stuff to be found there.

BTW, Aircut Teak Door has a building thread section in the forums. click on forums and search for building threads in Thailand. I think its the very first or second section listed. Good luck. Both Hillbilly and Andy have building threads, but I think Hillbillies would suit your circumstances better. Rural build.

thanks. everyone for their input!

Originally Posted by ltnt

Both Hillbilly and Andy have building threads, but I think Hillbillies would suit your circumstances better. Rural build.

yes, Hillys is very good

but I also did one on a rural build, that is where the road I mentioned was situated

Just dump gravel on it and see what happens is the concensus

Originally Posted by DrAndy

we had a 100m road which was fine in the dry season (mainly clay and dust) and got very muddy in parts when it rained we just dumped a few truckloads of approx 2cm gravel to about 5 cm all along the road when it rained again, some areas let the gravel sink down deep and created muddy areas again, so we dumped another 5cm on those patches

Originally Posted by hillbilly

Then one puts enough gravel into the road to keep everything moving smoothly. It ain't rocket science shit...

Surely it is 200 baht per ton, not per truck load?

I made a gravel road a kilometer long. Below are some critical design points.

grade it using a backhoe or tractor.

you should have ditches on both sides for drainage and assure the road is higher than the area around it. this is usually done by taking dirt dug out of the ditches and putting it on the road.

crown the road. nothing will ruin a gravel road quicker than rivers of water running through it rather than along it down in the ditches.

rent a big roller to compact every layer. if you can't get one then substitute by having a truck full of rock go over every inch of it over and over again so its wheels have packed every area.

heen poo: this is what i used as the base layer. it is known in english as crusher rock or road base. this is important to create an isolative barrier between the mud and the rock. otherwise the rock can sink into the mud and disappear.

heen klook: this is what i used for the surface. it is varying size aggregate up to an inch and a half. it is important not to use just one size rock. varying sizes allow the gaps between rocks to fill and make a solid, stable surface which will also limit dusting.


rolling the crusher rock



finished surface

^ looks great! Good work

^ yes, and good luck when the rains come

great tips canopy! Thank you!

Originally Posted by DrAndy

we had a 100m road which was fine in the dry season (mainly clay and dust) and got very muddy in parts when it rained

we just dumped a few truckloads of approx 2cm gravel to about 5 cm all along the road

when it rained again, some areas let the gravel sink down deep and created muddy areas again, so we dumped another 5cm on those patches

that was 5 years ago and it is still good

unless you have heavy traffic, you don't need to build a proper road surface

+1

If the only traffic on the road is you, your friends and a few motorbikes then don't waste too much money. Just chuck a load of gravel on top as DrAndy said then get a small digger to flatten it out. We put about 15cm down on our street of largish grade gravel and I've never seen a piece of dirt again.