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Since moving to Thailand I've come to despise concrete roads. The Thai approach to road building seems to be: 1. dump/spread/compress boat loads of sand (yes
by stephenr 10y ago
Since moving to Thailand I've come to despise concrete roads.
The Thai approach to road building seems to be:
1. dump/spread/compress boat loads of sand (yes you read that right, SAND) until you have a smooth surface that would work well for a kids sandpit.
2. Pour reinforced concrete slabs about 20cm/8" thick.
3. Wait for the inevitably overloaded trucks to destroy the surface.
I haven't seen a new asphalt road laid here yet, just re-surfacing so I'm not sure what their prep is like for that but the eventual result from abuse by pickups overloaded with watermelons/etc is less dangerous:
Asphalt tends to deform but keep a sold surface: the wheel tracks will be depressed, and the space between will become slightly raised (think like wheel tracks in the mud) but it can generally be navigated with care.
Concrete doesn't fail that way. It just cracks, the underlying sand gets washed away, and you have the wonderful experience of broken concrete with sharp metal sticking out the broken edges.
It doesn't help that Thai builders/society is obsessed with making things out of concrete.
- cyberferret 10y agoInteresting. I seem to recall that when I lived in Malaysia many decades ago, someone told me that when they laid down the gravel and tar mix for the roads over there, they added a fair bit of rubber sap into it as well. Don't know if it was an urban myth, but the person who told me mentioned that the roads tended to react better to things like heat expansion from the sun's heat and vibration because the final compound was a lot more elastic. He also said that the added rubber provided extra traction for vehicle tyres. Given that rubber is a massive raw produce of Malaysia, I could see that they could do this, but always wondered if it was viable from an engineering standpoint. I mean, the tar/gravel slush mix is quite hot, and I would have thought that raw, unprocessed rubber sap my break down in the mix?
- stephenr 10y agoHonestly I'm not sure. Rubber is produced here too, so its possible.
- jimmywanger 10y agohttp://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/tires/RAC/ http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/tires/RAC/ "Rubberized Asphalt Concrete". You're reusing discarded tires (which are extremely painful to recycle) and extending the lifespan of the road. Not quite sure if the material in tires is actually rubber or some synthetic petroleum product, but I think the principle is the same.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago> dump/spread/compress boat loads of sand Could it be mechanically-stabilised earth [1]? That stuff underlies much of America's interstate system. It's resilient when done right. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_stabilized_earth https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_stabilized_eart...
- stephenr 10y agoI doubt it. It is possible but I doubt it.