Australian road builders at work in Thailand
AUSTRALIAN road builders are com- pleting the third and final link of a highway across the centre of Thailand. A further stage in the ambitious Pan- Asian system, it breaks through the Burmese boarder at a town called Tak, on the Thai side, and extends east- wards to intersect the two main north- em arteries from Bangkok.
This central section of Highway 12 is being pushed through a rugged mountain range up to 883 metres (2,897 ft.) high to join the towns of Lomsak and Chompei – a distance of 105 kilometres. (about 65 miles).
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The Thai Government and the Colombo Plan authorities have nego-
tiated the assistance of experienced Snowy Mountains engineers and equip ment donations to complete these pro- grammes. The latest sector will be finished within five years by the re- cently formed Snowy Mountains En- gineering Co-operation, technically guided from Australia by Chief Con- struction Engineer, Mr. Tom Lewis.
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Foreign personnel are provided on counterpart system with local en- gineers of the Thai Highways Depart ment, and the projected cost of A$21 million for the complete section has been provided by the two govern- ments, with Australia's donation amounting to $7 million.
By Tod Kennedy
The first 15 kilometres of highway has entailed relatively easy gradients and with gravels in close proximity a good running surface has been built across rice paddy country. However, the seven-kilometer 'horror stretch' presently being excavated has terrain in the form of steep clustered hills and bamboo forests.
Unfortunately the slopes are too unstable to retain deep fills so the road relies almost entirely on cuts kept to a 1 in 10 grade throughout. At this stage an estimated 3 million cu. metres of solid rock is to be removed from box cuts, with the biggest excavation com- prising 740,000 cu.metres from one
Massive cuts through solid rock account for 25 per cent of the road
Far East BUILDER, May 1971
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