Tracks and roads description

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Tracks and roads provide access routes for people, vehicles, equipment and stock.
Their construction and maintenance has significant impact on the rural environment.

What is a road?
A road provides a hard, obstacle free surface for traffic movement. Access is provided by manipulating:

route: provides required access, meets land tenure constraints, assists navigation

grade: not too steep to allow traffic to pass, fits to contours of the land, affects drainage requirements

cross slope: sufficient crown for drainage, but flat to allow traffic (banking for speed turns is not an issue for minor roads and tracks) and

surface condition: withstand wear and tear, minimise soil loss, provide a reasonable ride.

• the traffic surface (the crown);
• verges adjacent to the traffic surface (edges or run-offs);
• table drains;
• cut batter (uphill of road -including catch drains above);
• fill batter (downhill of road);
• cross-drains or culverts;
• off-shoot drains;
• water discharge points or zones;
• drainage line crossings; and
• roadsides (that part of the road reserve not directly effected by roading activities).

The above figure shows a road in cross section while the figure below shows the same features in plan view for a side cut road in undulating terrain. The primary engineering function of a road is to provide a surface giving good foot and wheel traction over a range of weather conditions. Usually this requires a relatively impermeable surface and a transverse crown, so that rainfall is shed (rather that absorbed) from the trafficking surface, as quickly as possible. Table drains, culverts and bridges isolate the road surface from water flows.

Generalised plan view of a minor road