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).