Spring 2010 Vol. 18 No. 1
Agribusiness and gravel roads
In a Pavement Conference presentation, Ken Skorseth, South Dakota LTAP program manager, discussed three critical issues facing unpaved roads: roadway geometry, surface gravel selection, and modern traffic designs.
One major modern traffic problem for rural roads is agribusiness, he said. Large agribusiness will lead to higher traffic with heavier loads on gravel roads. This increased traffic will cause an increase in gravel loss, normally down into the subgrade of the road. Skorseth suggested using geotextiles or geosynthetics to “keep those silty or silt-clay subgrade soils from pumping into that surface aggregate layer and contaminating it under loads.”
Video is available of Skorseth’s presentation as well as those of Rick West of Otter Tail County (shoulder safety and maintenance) and Doug Schwartz of Roseville Public Works (maintaining recreational trails) at the TERRA Web site.
—Clayton Benjamin, LTAP intern
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