Strathcona County, situated east of Edmonton, Alberta, is responsible for a 1,302 km rural road network. The six functional design classifications into which the network is classified each have design standards for width, surface type, etc. A significant proportion of the network does not meet the current surface type standards, and a majority of the network does not meet the current width standards. A large proportion of the annual capital (rehabilitation) budget has historically been allocated to overlays on cold mix roads, based on a policy of fixed overlay cycles (i.e. a fixed number of kilometres per year). The result has been significant narrowing of road widths, and given the constrained budgets, a relative lack of spending on higher volume roads. This paper presents the results of some aspects of the Strathcona County's Sustainable Rural Roads Master Plan 2010, updated and developed by EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd. (EBA). The major objectives were to make recommendations regarding: the County's road rehabilitation (overlay) and maintenance policies and practices for various functional design classes; and future budget allocations among rehabilitation, maintenance and reconstruction activities. Three overarching guidelines were: 1) Environmental sustainability (with respect to the environmental footprint of the County's rural road works); 2) Budget sustainability (reallocation within existing budget levels); and 3) Feedback from the County's rural residents. A "budget and environmental sustainability framework" was developed to guide the analyses and recommendations. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E220308.
Abstract