PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING CAPACITY OF UNROCKED ROADS

Much of the concern over low-volume roads today is centered on the overdesigned standards, which cause high transportation costs. The objective of this study is to develop a procedure for evaluating the need for rock surfacing. The procedure considers the relationships among traffic demand, soil type, and precipitation. When the demand is seasonal, both soil and precipitation become major factors in determining the seasonal capacity of unrocked roads. In this study, these two factors were combined into a single composite measure, the number of shut-down days. The procedure developed was applied to determine the need for rock surfacing on 587.13 miles (939.41 km) of new single-lane roads proposed by a five-year timber sale action plan in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. The results indicated that the preferred alternative is to construct 122.61 miles (196.18 km) of aggregate roads and 464.52 miles (743.23 km) of dirt roads. When compared with the policy of building all rock-surfaced roads, this option of rock-surfacing selectively may save $12 million over the five-year period, or 20 percent of the total transportation cost, even if the forest pays $9 million to timber purchasers in compensation for the shut-down cost. The application demonstrated that such a process could be appled to developing regions, particularly where the traffic demand is seasonal. (Author)

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1983/898/898-022.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=PROCEDURE+FOR+DETERMINING+CAPACITY+OF+UNROCKED+ROADS&author=F.+Ou&author=L.+Collett&publication_year=1983
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Low-Volume Roads. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

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• Authors:
  • Ou, Fong-Lieh
  • Collett, Lee W
• Conference:
  • Third International Conference on Low-Volume Roads
  • Location: Tempe Arizona, United States
  • Date: 1983-7-24 to 1983-7-28
• Publication Date: 1983

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 145-150
• Monograph Title: LOW-VOLUME ROADS: THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, 1983
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 898
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Estimating; Highway capacity; Rainfall; Rocks; Soil types; Surfacing; Travel demand; Unpaved roads
• Uncontrolled Terms: Soil classification
• Subject Areas: Design; Geotechnology; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00376539
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309035112
• Report/Paper Numbers: N908
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 30 1983 12:00AM