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21st Century Non-Paved Roads OPTIMIZED GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 2019 OGRA Conference Roozbeh Rashedi, Ph.D., P.Eng. VP-Technology, Infrastructure Solutions Inc.
21st Century Non-Paved Roads
OPTIMIZED GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
2019 OGRA Conference
Roozbeh Rashedi, Ph.D., P.Eng.VP-Technology, Infrastructure Solutions Inc.
Gravel Roads –Who cares?
GRAVEL ROADS
60% of public roads in Canada are gravel - 626,000 km
53% of the national road network in the U.S. is gravel -2.6 million km
Routinely, gravel road segments have up to 400 vehicles per day
They are the poor cousin and typically receive less management attention compared to paved roads.
They are critical for product transport; the lifeblood of agricultural communities; only access to remote communities and recreation areas; serve mining and forestry; and serve local residents, especially in semi-urban and rural areas.
ALL SEASON GRAVEL ROADS ARE OPENING UP NORTHERN CANADA
Existing Trans-Taiga Road (Quebec) – 666 km North Road (Quebec) – 406 km Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk (Northwest Territories) – 137
kmUnder Construction Shoal Lake 40 First Nation – Freedom Road
(Manitoba) – 24 km East Side of Lake Winnipeg (ESLW) Road (Manitoba)
– 1,000 kmPlanning East-West All Season Road (Ontario) – 400 km Bathurst Inlet Port and Road (BIPAR) Project
(Nunavut) – 227 km James Bay Coastal All Season Road (Ontario) – 390
km James Bay to Hwy 17 All Season Road (Ontario) -
200 to 350 km Tlicho, All Season Road to Whati (NWT) – 97 km
James MacKenzie/Canadian Press
GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT
Maintaining gravel roads is a major activity for many municipalities and requires regular interventions to provide safe and smooth roads for users
Municipalities spend millions of dollars every year on gravel road maintenance and rehabilitation activities
Is this money spent effectively?
Do we know?
What is the current state of Gravel Road Management?
2017 SURVEY OF GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
GOAL: To capture state of practice of gravel road management in Canada
97 Canadian municipalities responded
Representing 40,000 km of gravel roads
Published 2017
STATE OF GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT IN CANADA
The majority of municipalities do not collect condition data about their gravel roads.
A perceived lack of benefit from a time and cost investment perspectives
Lack of a simple gravel road management system to help with condition assessment and data collection
RECORD KEEPING IS
GOOD
The maintenance history records can be used within a gravel road management system to monitor deterioration rates and
inform management and maintenance strategies.
STATE OF GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT IN CANADA
Other Findings
Gravel road management highly depends on individual and local knowledge
Frequency of maintenance activities varies based on traffic volumes, local conditions, user complaints and subgrade strength
Almost all municipalities with more than 50 km of gravel roads saw a great value in having software tools to assist with gravel road management
•
STATE OF GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT IN CANADA
Other Findings
Gravel road management highly depends on individual and local knowledge
Frequency of maintenance activities varies based on traffic volumes, local conditions, user complaints and subgrade strength
Almost all municipalities with more than 50 km of gravel roads saw a great value in having software tools to assist with gravel road management
STATE OF GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT IN CANADA
Other Findings
Gravel road management highly depends on individual and local knowledge
Frequency of maintenance activities varies based on traffic volumes, local conditions, user complaints and subgrade strength
Almost all municipalities with more than 50 km of gravel roads saw great value in having software tools to assist with gravel road management
•
What should a gravel road network management tool look like?
Desired Features of a GRMS
manage inventory, condition data, and maintenance history of their gravel roads in conjunction with their paved roads;
establish refined priority policies using network-wide priority settings based on various physical attributes, in addition to socio-economic factors for individual road segments;
specify detailed routine maintenance polices based on local knowledge or pre-set schedules;
incorporate robust gravel loss models to allow prediction of the need for and extent of re-graveling operations;
identify when gravel roads should be upgraded to surface treated;
compare the longer-term impacts of multiple scenarios with different policy and budget settings; and
generate a 10-year capital plan with road lists, budgeted costs, annual schedules, and map visualizations.
GRAVEL ROAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (GRMS)
CONDITION SURVEYS – RECORDING THE DATA
Predicting Deterioration Rates
Predicted Annual Gravel Loss (mm/year)=𝑓𝑓(𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑖𝑐𝑐, 𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑖𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑛, 𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑎𝑖𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑒, 𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑎𝑎𝑑𝑑 𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑒𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑟𝑦𝑦)
UPGRADE DECISIONS
Other Considerations: Structural Capacity Drainage Traffic
Characteristics Road Geometry Opinion of Local
Residents
Optimized Gravel Road Management Using DOT
DOT: Dashboard Visualizations
DOT: GIS visualization and data analytics
DOT: Optimization & Scenario Comparison
DOT: Optimization & Scenario Comparison
Thank Youfor more information on DOT (Decision Optimization Technology) ™ and gravel road survey please contact:
