Bella Villa Cabana, na Kluea, Thailand

Located a short distance away from the city center of Thailand’s popular beach resort, Pattaya, Bella Villa Cabana offers comfortable accommodations with a relaxing atmosphere and private beach. Decorated in a contemporary Thai style it offers style and comfort with its modern amenities that include free Wi-Fi internet access and room service. For your convenience rooms are also provided with a microwave and cutlery. It also has a cocktail lounge and a restaurant that features all-day dining serving mouth-watering Thai and international cuisine. Bella Villa Cabana is located near an international golf course, several shopping outlets and eateries. Unwind by taking a dip in the large freeform swimming pool that faces the sea or refresh yourself with a session at their fitness center and sauna. Other leisure activities such as diving and go-karting are also available in the area. The hotel also provides a free 2-way shuttle bus service from the hotel to Pattaya Center everyday.

Ask yourself the question, why does it take so long to complete a relatively easy road construction?

Why Are Pattaya (company website)’s Roads So Bad? Gavin Perfect of Global Design & Build Co,. One section of the road was partially completed in Jomtien over the Christmas holiday periods, being the area behind the Immigration office. Being a local expat you would sometimes ask yourself when driving up Theppraya Road, “How long have they been working on this road for?” I estimate that road has been under construction now for around four years. Ask yourself the question, why does it take so long to complete a relatively easy road construction? Why is it that in just a few months the road is completely damaged again? The answers to solve these problems are clear to see during the construction process. I was amazed to see a TV report not so long ago showing cars and bike trying aimlessly to drive through 2 feet of water after a small rain shower. Like any road in the world the most important part of road construction is the sub foundations.

These are the materials and base foundation that the road finishing is laid on. The procedure to comply to also isn’t implemented in Thailand road construction. To make sure this sub – base is constructed correctly you require specific machinery that they simply do not use here in Thailand. Once complete the sub base should be installed in layers of a specified maximum depth along with special membrane materials, and compacted to a specified strength, which is then tested using a compaction gauge. Before completing the sub base to finished height (ie the final layer) you would then install all underground services, being drainage, cable ducts (Thailand seems to not want these). When constructing a heavily trafficked road the first objective is to excavate to a good sub virgin (or compact) sub soil. Now this is where many of the problems arise here in Pattaya. Once any services are laid in place the void should be filled using a graded material and compacted to a specified target.

This simply isn’t done here and hence once the rains come the underground voids fill and subsidence occurs, meaning the road surface becomes under mined which creates all the pot holes we see and the breakdown of the road finishing surfaces. Both road surfaces hold their own advantages and disadvantages. You will notice that many of the local roads are of two different types of surface, some being Tarmacadem (Tarmac) and others concrete. My personal opinion for a country such as Thailand would be to use concrete. My reason for this is due to the climate, with tarmac decomposing quicker in high temperatures. In many cases the reason for installing one over the other potentially comes down to cost. Tarmac can handle traffic just hours after installation. Concrete roads are easier to repair, but in hand cost more in labour to install and take longer to install. Another major problem is the drain locations. I’m still amazed that the Civil Engineers designing and constructing the local roads seem to think that water travels up hill.

They place the drainage covers in the middle of the road as opposed to up against the kerb line and have the gradient of the road fall towards to drain covers. Many of these over looked solutions may come down to expense, but in the long run, and like in most situations, trying to cut corners in the beginning lead to higher expense in the long term. Many times when we see this is due to the road being widened after the original road had been constructed, but a simple solution is to create off set drainage at the road side kerb lines. Most of the problems with drainage and flooding in Pattaya cannot be helped. Road maintenance can be a huge expensive for any local council, so to save money the job should be done properly in the first place. A large section of the city ground levels are very close to the water table, or sea level, and most of the original infrastructure put in place when this was a quiet holiday town aren’t sufficient to cope with what the city is today.