How Can We Make County Roads Last Longer?
County Progress tapped into the know-how of some of the state’s leading road experts headquartered at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Question: What are the keys to building long-lasting roads?
Answer: Eldon McCurley and Bruce Eliker, Instructors, University of Texas at Arlington’s UTA Public Works Institute
- Good quality base materials – reference TxDot Standard Specifications for Construction and Maintenance, Item 200 Subgrade treatment and Base provides good guidelines.
- Assurance of compaction of subgrade, base and surface materials.
- Adequate crown from the roadway’s center to the edge to ensure drainage of water from the roadway surface
- Accurately graded and maintained ditches, drainage structures to handle surface water that drains from the roadway surface and adjacent lands. Water is the main enemy of any type of roadway surface, paved or unpaved.
- Road users expect good, well-maintained roads; County maintained or State maintained. The public expects public officials to do the right things, and do the right things well, also be good stewards of taxpayer money.
- Roads are built from the ground up. A good foundational sub-grade, sub-base and base materials with the proper density/compaction are required to provide roads that will support vehicle loads and traffic volumes.
- Geometric design consists of the alignment of the road and the profile of the road, as well as the cross section of the roadway. The cross section shows many items, most importantly the drainage features that are so important. Also provides safety for the road user.
Question: What are the keys to maintaining long-lasting roads?
Answer: Eldon McCurley and Elton Glidewell, Instructors, University of Texas at Arlington’s UTA Public Works Institute
Roadway agencies must ensure that water quickly drains from the roadway surface into adjacent ditches or drainage structures. On all roadways, it is important to “cut” high shoulder buildups from the edge of the roadway, and remove silt/dirt and grass that builds up next to the edge of the roadway that prevents the drainage of water from the roadway. As water ponds next to the edge of the roadway, it will slowly seep into the underlying base material. Over time, this causes the pavement edge to ravel and creates pavement edge drop-offs.
- On the pavement surface, good preventative maintenance practices such as crack sealing and fog sealing are important to prevent water from penetrating the underlying base material. Once water penetrates the base material, the roadway surface will quickly deteriorate resulting in rutting, pot holes, base, and subgrade failures.
- Restricting and enforcing overweight loads is important because it can be detrimental to roads.
- Develop a strategic maintenance plan and follow it. A Preventative Maintenance (PM) technique helps preserve the investment made by the local road agency. Assessing the conditions of your roadways and maintenance needs, we cannot afford to perform the wrong treatment when performing PM. It’s very important to take an inventory of your roadways and assess their condition; this is the only way to determine your maintenance needs and to be able to budget for needed repairs and PM. Remember, good PM keeps the water out of the pavement structure and extends the life of the pavement.
- Keeping good roads in good condition is the best PM strategy to follow. Take care of your good roadways and promptly address all minor maintenance needs. With new road surfacing, you may begin to see roads age after about three years or so. When aging is first noticed, preventative maintenance efforts should be initiated to preserve and extend the life of the pavement.
- For gravel roads maintenance, it is important to select good surface gravel, no large than ¾” in size, with good fines and plasticity. Along with proper blading and compaction to maintain the road crown, this will promote a long-lasting road surface. In addition, it is important to keep all bar ditches/channels and drainage structures clear and open.
- The life of pavement is dependent on routine and preventative maintenance strategies. Preventative maintenance cannot fix a failed roadway. Failed roadways can only be corrected by rehabilitation/reconstruction, the two most expensive and time consuming, maintenance repairs. By staying out of the “worst-first” approach in your maintenance strategy and striving to “keep good roads good” you’ll be time and money ahead.
- The problems associated with inadequate drainage. Moisture penetration is one of the major causes of road failure. The results are potholes, base, subgrade failures and edge failures. Inadequate drainage ditches that don’t flow properly, culverts that are stopped up must be opened up cleaned out as soon as possible. This is very important on gravel roads; they are very susceptible to moisture penetration.
- Crack sealing is an excellent preventative maintenance tool. It is very cost effective and requires a minimum of skill and equipment. Crack sealing definitely helps prevent moisture penetration.
- The immediate repair of potholes and pavement failures, if done properly, seals the failure and help prevent further deterioration.
- Almost any surfaced roadway will need a surface seal every five years. A properly applied chip seal seals the surface and improves friction and skid.
Question: How does strategic planning contribute to the success of a road program?
Answer: Eldon McCurley, Instructor, University of Texas at Arlington’s UTA Public Works Institute
A strategic maintenance plan allows an agency to schedule and correct roadway deficiencies, rather than continuously performing repeated unproductive maintenance activities. It benefits in public perception and awareness.
“PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN”
Question: What role does preventive maintenance play in road durability?
Donnie Petru, Instructor, University of Texas at Arlington’s UTA Public Works Institute
Preventive maintenance is very important when it comes to road durability. In fact let’s compare your road to your home; if your roof leaks eventually your floor will rot. The down side to this is a new roof doesn’t make your home necessarily more appealing, and the same goes with roads. Preventive maintenance or sealcoat doesn’t make your road more appealing to the public and will most likely generate the most complaints, but is essential in preventative maintenance. More key factors that play a role in road durability are:
- Base failures need to be repaired as they appear or they can lead to more serious problems.
- Adequate drainage is the key, and water is it worst enemy proving that preventive maintenance is not just limited to the road itself.
All this being said, a well maintained road although not more appealing to public, is essential to road durability. Planning and budgeting is the key; every dollar spent on preventive maintenance will save four dollars in corrective maintenance.
Question: Is it possible to fix drainage issues without relocating pipe?
Donnie Petru, Instructor, University of Texas at Arlington’s UTA Public Works Institute
Before you can address drainage issues there are several question to ask:
- Is the issue due to an average rain or a heavy torrential rain?
- Is the issue immediately after a rain, or standing water for a long period of time?
You can fix drainage issues by adding additional pipes to help the issues. However, you may have some issues with landowners on both sides. Most issues are something that may have happened overtime like erosion, silt, or debris. To address some of the possible issues on the upstream side, which is the most common side, the fix maybe something as simple as the elevation being too low for the pipe, or even going in and taking an elevation shot and bringing it up to grade. All this being said, planning and communication are key, it is very important to keep people informed. Your local Soil and Conservation office is a great source that can assist you and, they have access to topographic maps that can give you some guidance. Relocating pipes to fix drainage can be complex, but doing all the homework in advance will ensure your job a success.