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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).
Generalised cross-section of a track or minor road
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 |
