tamada wrote: ↑

September 22, 2018, 7:15 pm

pal52 wrote: ↑

September 22, 2018, 5:18 pm

stereolab wrote: ↑

September 22, 2018, 4:38 pm

I travelled through the roadworks from NK at 0730 hrs this morning, sailed through all the way to the airport.

Maybe that had something to do with being a Saturday.
No School buses / plus parents taking children to school or government workers going to work.

That early yes but on Saturday/Sunday it still turns to ---- around 11 AM onwards, just like a week day but with the added bonus of Lao drivers who like to straddle lanes.

Tamada nailed it. Weekend mornings aren't bad, but later in the day it's a nightmare going that last couple of kilometers to the Ring Road from the direction of Nong Kai. Coming back the other way is no picnic, either, now that it's down to essentially one lane. Having a 4WD drive SUV helps, but I have to give thanks to the Thai sense of what constitutes a detour--it's been worth a barrel of laughs.

Yes, & Mr & Mrs Somchai who only go out on a weekend to see the bright lights of Udon & have no idea what to do or where to drive. At least the weekday commuters seems to have got a faint grasp of the situation having travelled it so many times

Drunk Monkey wrote: ↑

September 21, 2018, 1:51 pm

Made the mistake of getting caught up in these road / construction works this morning ..can only be described as a bomb site akin to the movie Battle of the Somme.

Agree, as went past/through it last week and its typical Thai.

Someone suggested bad planning, which is part of the problem, as Thai's rarely thing ahead. The most likely reason is that the Contractor just doesn't want to spend a cent on any form temporary works, be it the roadway around this construction site or even the way builds the overpass, so he does the absolute minimum outside and inside of his Site. You can also see it in his general organization/approach inside his Site, as well.

It’s not just a Thai mentality, its typical in much of Asia and the Middle East. Thai and other Asian Contractors don't have that construction mindset of "Spending some money to organize their construction sites first, in order to get a better result and more productivity", because their labor is arguably very cheap

Not to mention the fact that as an Outsider (i.e. the General Public), you mean S F A to them and their profit margin, so why should they bother to spend on anything the outside, when they can just inconvenience you for free =D> =D>

pipoz4444

Not a problem, actually a good thing, slow down some of the wild drivers, nice smooth slow ride for me often.

Stop winging , this is thailand not europe, will be worth it once finished.

I must admin I had the some thoughts of this could be done better going though parts of the road works. Most of the hold up I found was caused by very poor road in a small parts of it causing the traffic to slow to near stop to get though it. This seemed to be one of the issues for the tail backs on some part and seemed like quite a simple thing to fix.

The one good thing is google maps traffic, You can see the traffic and it is normally correct, so you know when to avoid it and can take a detour.

Contrary to sometimes popular belief, the city is trying to reduce the impact of the overpass/tunnel construction.
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/%E0%B8 ... n__=*NKH-R

https://www.thairath.co.th/content/1390205

Don't expect miracles.....but maybe some changes to help improve the flow.

A mere 344 days til completion!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3amTa_ ... bNzlDSjqVc

The good news, at least thus far, is that the construction appears to be much more professional than that done on the bridge by Big C.

"The good news, at least thus far, is that the construction appears to be much more professional than that done on the bridge by Big C."

Yes I was thinking that the other day (not) as I watched 2 guys with a very long bending pole and a block of wood attached putting the finishing touches to the concrete road surface

It's a bit long into the project, but I finally found what I guess counts as the site office. It's a little bit up the road from directly opposite Do Home on the Nong Khai road. There's a construction place first, messy with big trucks in, then a bit further on an a small, gated entrance to a secluded area, where there are various houses and one being used as an office.
Anyway, spoke to the site manager?, pleasant guy with good English, plans scattered all over his desk. He appeared to take on board my comments about fairly regular use of a mechanical roadsweeper, to actually pick up the dirt/dust, might prove preferable to spraying water and turning the road into a sea of mud, which dries out the same as it was before! He offered that he had asked his company previously to buy one! I said I had seen one in Udon, presumably used by the Tessabaan - he might speak to a friend contact he has there.
I also said that I'd read something about a recent meeting mentioning making things better for drivers. I suggested there were several things which might be improved if they looked at it "from a driver's seat". I'm pleased, at least, that another reorganisation of the barrier placement, means that two lanes are now maintained near to the actual junction for cars from NK way wanting to go straight over. For several months, it seems, the lanes unnecessarily shrunk to about 1 1/2, because dividing barriers had been placed a few metres more forward than actually required.
He confirmed about another year to project completion.

Considering that this is the main route from one capital to another , and the sheer volume of commercial traffic that uses that road , i think its utterly shambollick. Feel sorry for you guys that have to use it on a daily basis , and the poor bastards that are trying to run businesses there . I was on it a few days ago , It was mud , dirt , and dust everywhere .
The truck trailers struggle to make the U turns . Theres no real signage of any sort , and the signs that are there are covered in filth , so you cant read them . On a good note , the new concrete is at least 200 mil thick with decent size rebar , but its anyones guess how much cement is in that concrete !!!

the outer ring road's been in the plans for a number of years.. If that was done the traffic issues on the inner ring road would be cut markedly since most of the large truck traffic heading up to Laos use it...

saint wrote: ↑

November 8, 2018, 10:34 am

Considering that this is the main route from one capital to another , and the sheer volume of commercial traffic that uses that road , i think its utterly shambollick. Feel sorry for you guys that have to use it on a daily basis , and the poor bastards that are trying to run businesses there . I was on it a few days ago , It was mud , dirt , and dust everywhere .
The truck trailers struggle to make the U turns . Theres no real signage of any sort , and the signs that are there are covered in filth , so you cant read them . On a good note , the new concrete is at least 200 mil thick with decent size rebar , but its anyones guess how much cement is in that concrete !!!

Last night, I had to drop a passenger off at No. 2 Bus Ststion, what a disgraceful shambles it is, absolutely disgusting, they are showing no regard for drivers. Signage, as said above, is little or non-existent, lighting is required at a number of spots, mud everywhere. I am lucky in as much as I know the road layout well, however, an out of towner would become completely lost. On the plus side, they were protecting their night workers well, with lots of safety personnel with lights.

No 2 us station is opposite the road licence office beside where they sell lots of fruit trees and beside the old Tesco. Only usually see mini vans using it

dunroaming wrote: ↑

November 10, 2018, 4:43 pm

No 2 us station is opposite the road licence office beside where they sell lots of fruit trees and beside the old Tesco. Only usually see mini vans using it

I believe you'll find that one is termed No 3 - have a look at an actual Udon map - and No 2 is as Tamada indicated.

ah okay sorry my mistake if I ever need to chance my life and take a bus will know where to go. Took the wives friend there a few months ago but was held up in traffic lucky for her as bus she should have taken was involved in fatalities

Drifting off topic here, but I doubt the local transport drivers know the bus stations by their numbers. I suggested a friend make his own way up to Phen and he took car from his hotel, a lady driver, I think 'someone they knew'. He had a tour of Udon, airport, bus station (Fuzzy Kens), the ring road one, before finally reaching the Tesco's one. It would have been quicker to walk it.