Saving our roads - Soil Embankments series 2 of 3

The recent prolonged rain over many parts of eastern Australia have reminded many road users of the challenge of maintaining roads when water seeps into the foundation.



Sure,  I would be first to say every Council should be building roads with 100mm minus crusher run as it's  normally much more sustainable than using cheaper and smaller imported foundation materials. It's also true but many of our rural councils cannot afford to make the very best foundations,  having to use local soils like we all do. It's true that some rural and remote Shires( esp in NSW and QLD ) have shocking soils for road building and require much higher costs in imported materials, fabrics treatments and design.  

What Shires and agencies can do, which many have not been doing in recent decades ,  is remove grass and soil off road verges that are not steep enough to drain easily. 

Once the verges are steep enough, regular mowing , grading or other measures need to be used to prevent this growth and the predictable weakness that will develop in our road edges,

Excessive erosion  ( which I am not advocating) and runoff water quality impact from this more regular road formation grading can be resisted by better choice of verge materials and  proper table drain structures ; These are investments that pay off in less erosion,  lower maintenance and  much higher safety for road users, long term