Au Canada, on prévoit que les changements climatiques auront une incidence considérable sur l'industrie forestière. Les routes d'accès sont particulièrement vulnérables aux effets immédiats et à court terme des changements climatiques. Des stratégies d'adaptation pour les routes d'accès et les infrastructures doivent être élaborées et leur mise en œuvre doit commencer, afin de s'assurer que les infrastructures routières nécessaires pour accéder à la forêt soient maintenues et résistent aux effets des changements climatiques. Ce rapport présente les risques et la vulnérabilité des routes d'accès aux changements climatiques, ainsi que des méthodes et pratiques recommandées pour s'y adapter.
The changes to climatic conditions in Canada are anticipated to have a significant impact on the Canadian forest industry. Resource roads are considered particularly vulnerable to the immediate and short-term impacts of climate change. Adaptation strategies for resource roads and infrastructure must be developed and implementation initiated to ensure that the road infrastructure required for forest access is maintained and made resilient to climatic impacts. This report presents the risks and vulnerabilities of resource roads to climate change and suggested adaptation methods and practices.
The management of resource road network infrastructure such as roads, bridges, culverts in a cost-effective manner while ensuring that the required performance needs are met can be a challenge. This report introduces the key concepts of asset management and provides an overview of many of the key factors to implementing a successful asset management plan.
The articulated dump truck is the only piece of heavy equipment used in road-building whose sales increased during 1990 and 1991. Its use in teh forest remains limited.
Debris management at logging sites and handling facilities is of increasing concern due to the volume of accumulated material and the constrained options for disposal. In March 2014, B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) provided a timber sale on Maurelle Island that produced a large quantity of detached bark which originated from a 132-ha harvest area. Harvesting was during March 2014, and the predominant source of bark was from 41 150 m3 of Douglas-fir which accounted for approximately half the harvested volume (88 050 m3 total harvest volume). The bark accumulated at both a log storage area and on a transport barge during loading and unloading. The bark was disposed of along two dead-end spur roads (Figure 1). One of the spur roads has a small S6 stream (non-fish bearing) crossing through it. The disposal of logging debris (bark) along spur roads had not been considered or tried before by the Strait of Georgia Business Area of BCTS. The bark for Douglas-fir accounts for 30% by volume, which is the highest overall volume of bark for all softwood species (on average bark accounts for 10 to 15%).
The Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) conducted field studies involving a compact, track-mounted jaw crusher used to crush rock for new roads and for road rehabilitation work. This report describes the studies, provides productivity and cost information on the use of the crusher, and provides suggestions for implementing this rock crushing technology on forest roads.
Compacting cohesive soils for forest roads is relatively inexpensive ($500 to $1000 per km) and cost-effective, yet compaction still isn't used extensively by the forest industry. Increased soil density reduces settlement, increases soil strength, improves bearing capacity, limits volume changes and often leads to lower construction and maintenance costs. These savings often cover the cost of compaction. FERIC recently studied the impact of soil compaction in two road construction techniques: V-ditch embankment (in which density increased by 8% and penetration resistance tripled) and the lift-over rootmat method (in which density increased little and penetration resistance doubled).
Structural design catalogues enable road builders and field personnel to optimize aggregate thickness based on field conditions, thereby reducing overall road construction costs, increasing road performance, and reducing maintenance costs. Catalogue users can select a design suitable for a given level of road performance and traffic as well as for various subgrade and aggregate properties.
Developing and implementing adaptation practices that reduce the negative impacts and the vulnerability of resource road infrastructure to climate change needs to be a priority for resource road managers. The planning and design stage of a resource road represents the first opportunity where climate change adaptation strategies can be identified and implemented. This is the second Info Note in a series of five focused on the key issues of creating climate resilient resource roads.
