Forest Road Assessment Using, recording and maintaining the asset David Killer - Forestry Civil Engineering - 23 October 2007

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 2 what are forest roads for?

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23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 4 the main users of many forest roads

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 5 road condition survey to define the usage of each segment of road in terms of low, medium or high for the following categories: timber traffic, light vehicles, cyclists, horses, walkers and other  to decide on the optimum surfacing solution for each usage combination  to record the actual condition against the optimum  to estimate the cost of moving to the optimum surfacing solution

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 6 road condition survey (cont’d)  to assess the strength of roads for harvesting purposes (GPR and FWD) to record the condition of other features which include: the sensitivity of the area to water (this determines the attention paid to side ditches and culverts), the condition of side drains, surface potholes, road shape and vegetation data transferred to an Arc9 geodatabase

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 7 inputting usage data

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 8 surface characteristics

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer 9 survey vehicle

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23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer14 data capture and processing

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer15 results of road assessment 1. Record of road usage and actual condition 2. Recommendations for achieving optimum condition for actual usage 3. Access to funds for recreation/health 4. Improved knowledge of road strength and improved targeting of maintenance resource 5. GIS video record of all forest infrastructure 6. Better predictions of serviceability of forest and minor public roads

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer16 bottom line FC has 4,000km of Class A roads Assume these are re-surfaced every 10 years using 1T/m = 400,000T of stone pa assume an average of £5/T = £2M aim for 10% saving from targeted maintenance allowing for cost of survey the net saving = £100k pa 40k T of stone = saving of 4k T of CO 2

RUTT Roads Under Timber Traffic RUTT Project Roads under Timber Transport A joint study by Forestry Civil Engineering & the University of Nottingham

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23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer27 Left hand side wheel path6.10%SoakedRiskJ. Jones TPCS19/Sep Right hand side wheel path5.00%SoakedRiskJ. Jones TPCS19/Sep Test due on 10th October?SoakedRiskJ. Jones TPCS18/Sep Trial %SoakedRiskJ.M. Artic + FCE ML06/SepTrial %SoakedType 1John Scott LGP18/AugTrial 5 Material at Scotland Lab SoakedType 1 J.M. Lorry&Drag + FCE ML 08/AugTrial 4 Rut bottom - Right hand wheel track5.70% Wheel Track - 0 to 7cm depth3.90%SoakedType 1John Miller (J.M.) Aritc24/JulTrial 3 Material at Scotland Lab SoakedType 1FCE ML27/JunTrial 2 N/ADryType 1FCE ML (Multi-Lift)26/JunTrial 1 Remarks Moisture Content ConditionMat.VehicleDateTrial RUTT Project - Ringour Trials Laboratory Results

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23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer30 Poor Material Grading Analysis

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer31 Some Points about the Trials Each trial involves running vehicles over the section 100 times, measuring at set intervals. The section was watered every 10 passes. The first two trials were designed to compare rutting in dry and wet conditions. The fourth trial involved two vehicles running in different tracks to allow comparison under the same conditions. An important development.

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer32 Some More Points about the Trials The seventh trial employed a vehicle fitted with the Tireboss system running at three increasing tyre pressure configurations on the drive and trailer axles. The steering axle tyre pressure could not be altered from normal. An eighth trial was conducted running the Multi-Lift with all tyres at 70 psi in one track and at 110psi in a second track.

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer33 Observations so far The main factors that influence rutting are moisture content and tyre pressure/load. It is thought that rutting is proportional to the highest tyre pressure / axle load combination (this includes the steering axle).

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer34 The Final Message It was found that tyre pressures varied enormously, some unnecessarily high at 125 psi. If road damage equates to high tyre pressures Get a tyre pressure gauge and stop these guys wrecking your roads and their tyres

23 October 2007 Forest Road Assessment David Killer35 Tyre Pressure Gauge