A 2-rai plot - roughly 3,200 m² - in Maenam. The ground was waterlogged and boggy, with dense vegetation covering most of it and a blocked natural watercourse running through the site. No drainage, nowhere for the water to go. The task: open the drainage, clear the land, bring in fill and raise the level so the plot could be used.

This was one of the most demanding projects we've taken on. Nearly every piece of equipment we operate was deployed here at some point.

Drainage first

Before any fill could go in, the water had to have somewhere to go. We cleared and deepened the existing drainage channel, restoring the natural watercourse. The critical part was getting the water off the plot entirely: we installed a drainage pipe under the road so the channel could flow through rather than backing up. Until that pipe was in and working, the site couldn't drain.

Finding and moving the soil

With a project requiring around 1,000 m³ of fill, sourcing the material efficiently mattered. We located a quarry and positioned our Caterpillar 305CR there permanently to load the trucks. The Hino 300 and Hino Super FM18 ran 200 trips between the quarry and the site over the course of the project - a constant loop of loading, hauling and returning.

Rain extended the timeline to close to a month. A waterlogged site during heavy rain is a different environment to work in: the ground shifts, access becomes difficult and the machinery has to be managed more carefully. We worked around the weather as much as possible and kept moving.

Spreading and leveling

On site, the Komatsu PC128 and the Kubota tractor worked together - the tractor pushing and spreading the incoming fill across the plot, the excavator leveling and compacting. Raising a boggy plot by enough to make it usable requires consistent passes and attention to where the material settles.

Result

The drainage channel flows. The road pipe is in. Approximately 1,000 m³ of fill brought in across 200 truck runs. The plot went from a waterlogged, overgrown bog to a cleared, leveled and draining site ready for its next use.

Complex drainage and earthworks on difficult terrain anywhere on Koh Samui - get in touch.