Guidelines for forest road engineering in mountainous terrain

Logging-on examines an FAO publication that provides useful information for roads on difficult terrain.

The document serves to support the well-known FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice (1996). It was written for forest road practitioners who are responsible for road access on steep terrain, and also to improve practices in forest road engineering that are aligned with the principles of sustainable forest management. It specifically focusses on the recommended practices for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of forest roads in mountainous terrain. The document is structured as follows:
 

• Strategic planning: The chapter explains how a strategic plan assists with the creation of an acceptable road network. The guiding principles and recommended practices are explained.
• Access planning: Valuable parts of this chapter include the factors influencing road alignment, geometric controls on road alignment, observations during road layout, guidelines on cut and fill slope angles, guidelines on swell and shrink percentages of materials, and cost estimations.
• Road pavement: Interesting sections include recommended practices, corrugation and surface ruts, geosynthetics, stabilisation by soil mixing, and dust suppressants.
• Drainage: This includes aspects such as the selection of pipe culverts, culvert size, culvert spacing, road drainage and potholes.
• Equipment selection: The chapter focusses on excavators, rock drills, machine costs and machine rates.
• Road construction: This short chapter gives an overview of the process and aspects pertinent to steep terrain areas.
• Slope protection and stabilisation: Important information is contained on bioengineering techniques and protective functions.
• Road maintenance: This is a brief chapter outlining the objectives of road maintenance and the recommended practices.

The document was produced by the FAO in 2007 and is titled “Forest road engineering in mountainous terrain”. It was authored by R. Jonathan Fannin and Joachim Lorbach. Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/a1241e/a1241e00.pdf