Secondary roads near Phipun

Communities ประเทศไทย (Thailand)
1

What’s a new year without a new question on the confusing Thai road numbering system?
Well, I could find a new strange situation on ground during last December.

I cycled round Kathun Lake https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/8.5748/99.5179
and arrived on road 4224 (which had a wrong number in OSM). I found a milestone showing km 11: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/7160232456

Cycling to the east, the km numbers became smaller, till eventually I reached a T junction https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4969336292
The road signs there showed that road 4224 is expected to go both left and right… But I was coming from 4224. How is that possible?

I turned left for a few meters, did not see a milestone (but it was less than a km).
Then turned back east towars Din Daeng Lake. Shortly afterwards, I found a milestone: road 4224, km 26! https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4969335892

After cycling around that lake, I arrived on 4224 again. Just before Phipun town, there was a milestone showing road 4224 and km 20 https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4969343037

After the town, some 3 km from the previous milestone away, there was a milestone with km 17, but road 4194 https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4969342482
Then the km numbers became less, and the road number remained 4194.

I am confused. What did happen here?

My current guess is that the road was originally 4194. At that T junction, it went to the west. When Kathum lake was built, a road was submerged: https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=8.587118148611111&lng=99.53565216055556&z=17&pKey=iq2u2h-4cXOm4ayAamAmaQ&focus=photo and https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=8.588337898055556&lng=99.5108184813889&z=15.947687678455488&pKey=DNtp6PmSE5kLeUMRGX_PkQ&focus=photo

Consequently, a new road was built south of the lake. That new road got number 4224, starting from that junction. Then, the signs / milestones on ground were corrected. But somehow some further sections of 4194 were “corrected”, too.

What do you think?

2

I had a quick peek at the Central Road Database, and as far as that shows:

The 4194 continues past that T-junction and stops at the Eastern shore of the Lake (currently shown incorrectly on OSM).
The 4224 starts at that T-Junction, goes South then West past the dam, then carries on until it hits the railway lines, where it officially stops.
The small 1.6km length of road that connects from the 4224 to the Western lakeshore, is actually now designated 4344.

I suspect anything on the ground that does not conform the above, just needs changing and possibly has not been done yet… I remember a case on the way to Udon T. where the blue signs and the milestones were at odds for 2 years!

Would you like me to make the corrections/additions ?

3

Thanks, Russ. Just beware of the milestones which also have ref number tag.
With not so many mappers on ground, there should not be someone changing it back according to “ground truth”.
:slight_smile:

4

you could leave a note tag explaining the situation. I personally would not change a ref number from something else with a good note attached to it explaining the thing. Not a guarantee certainly, but a good chance that it will work.