What is it?

Proper road drainage and maintenance are important for efficient forestry operations and minimizing sediment and road erosion. Road drainage strategies include designing drainage areas appropriate for road size and drainage area and proper design and installment of culverts. Road maintenance strategies include regrating roads after rut formation, removing excess sediment from drainage areas, and using vegetation to stabilize roads and prevent erosion.

Conservation Benefits

• Reduces the amont of habitat lost to road construction
• Reduces amount of erosion at road sites

What does it include?

The following recommendations were taken from the Texas Forestry Best Management Practices Handbook produced by the Texas Forestry Association and Texas Forest Service.

• Ditches, culverts, cross drains, and wing ditches should be installed at the same time as the construction of the roadway.
• Permanent access roads should be designed to drain effectively by using site specific practices such as crowning, using ditches, culverts, waterbars and/or by outsloping.
• Cross drains, relief culverts and wing ditches should not discharge onto erodible soils or over erodible fill slopes unless outfall protection is provided.
• Make effective use of diversion or wing ditches to carry road drainage away from the road and onto the undisturbed forest floor. Wing ditches should not
  discharge within 50 feet of a stream bed or channel.
• All culverts, permanent or temporary, should be of adequate size to carry the normal water flow anticipated during heavy rains
• If needed, waterbars and other appropriate water control structures should be constructed to minimize erosion of the road bed.
• The road surface should be crowned, or outsloped to dissipate surface runoff and minimize erosion of the roadbed.
• Ditches should be kept free from siltation, logging debris, brush, etc.
• Culverts should be kept open and clean to allow unrestricted passage of water.
• Exposed soil subject to excessive erosion should be revegetated or otherwise stabilized if natural revegetation will not suffice.
• Roads not in use should be retired and periodically inspected by the landowner or their agent to ensure their integrity.
• Re-establish vegetation on roadbeds, drainage systems, sideslopes, and backslopes following significant soil disturbances as quickly as site sensitivity requires.
• When extended periods between activities are expected (logging, logging/site prep, site prep/planting, etc.), temporary preventive measures should be taken when the potential for significant erosion exists.
• Re-sizing culverts and/or installing additional drainage structures may be necessary on highly erodible sites due to the increased runoff which usually follows logging and site preparation.
• Grassed-over roadbeds, sideslopes, and backslopes should be mowed or hand cleared, etc., to minimize soil disturbance.
• Special care should be taken when maintaining roads so that below grade roads are not created