Biodegradable roads

Abstract

This project assessed whether mulching windrows of waste wood from right-of-way logging could produce an all-weather road surface for in-block roads. Three in-block spur roads in the Alex Fraser Research Forest at Williams Lake, B.C., were divided into three 50-m sections with: (1) waste wood collected from a 40 m right-of-way, (2) waste wood collected from a 20 m right-of-way, and (3) no waste wood. A gravel truck was loaded to produce drive axle loads similar to a loaded logging truck and was used in the cyclic loading of the test road. The mulched wood roads clearly out-performed the soil roads. Failure occurred in the mulched wood roads at points of localized rutting in weak spots within the mulched layer. In an operational setting, the weak spots could easily be filled by hand or with a skidder blade.