Unsealed Roads Maintenance Secrets to Save Time and Money

Abstract

This paper will present two case studies that together demonstrate how achieving the six criteria for best practice unsealed roads maintenance will significantly reduce road deterioration, therefore saving councils time and money. The first case study will follow Maranoa Regional Council’s recent experiments with different types of rollers, techniques and moisture conditioning to achieve effective compaction on their unsealed roads. Council verified results during this process with density tests and checks to determine the most effective combination of techniques. The second case study will further explore the criticality of moisture conditioning in the maintenance of unsealed roads by exploring Gladstone Regional Council’s use of cone tips on grader blades. Council has recently returned to this technique which has proven benefits over traditional methods. The objective of this paper will be to: • Demonstrate the efficiencies to gained by achieving the six criteria for best practice unsealed roads maintenance, these being: 1. Successful removal of defects 2. Achieving adequate material retrieval 3. Moisture condition 4. Compaction 5. Cross fall 6. Drainage • Focus on the different techniques Maranoa Regional Council and Gladstone Regional Council have experimented with to achieve effective moisture condition and compaction. • Demonstrate the resulting improvement in unsealed road performance and the efficiencies gained that directly translate to saving Council both time and money.