Recreational Trail Preventive Maintenance - Mn/DOT and LRRB Research Project

According to the Minnesota Department of National Resources, there 25,000+ miles of state and privately owned recreational trails in Minnesota. Recreational trails are an important investment, but are too often neglected once they are built. Ignoring this investment leads to deterioration, underuse, and increased maintenance and replacement costs.

Tom Wood from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) Office of Materials and Road Research discusses a project that answers questions about why our trails are important, options for maintaining our trails, contracting methods, and what actions Mn/DOT and the Local Road Research Board (LRRB) are taking to train stakeholders and practitioners on the importance and maintenance of recreational trails.

Project Summary
Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of using pavement preventive maintenance techniques for recreational trails—including various surface sealing and crack treatments—by applying them to several trails in Minnesota and comparing their permeability and surface texture to untreated control sections. Results showed that all of the treatments reduced the permeability, and all fog seal treatments did so while consistently providing a high-quality surface for trail users.
http://www.lrrb.org/pdf/200925TS.pdf

Project Abstract and Report
The growth in recreational trails owned by the State, Cities, Counties, and Park systems over the last 20 plus years has exploded. Most if not all efforts related to recreational trails over these years has been focused on construction of new trails. There have been little organized efforts in trail preservation and or preventive maintenance (PM) methods to extend the usable life of the trails. The agencies that have a PM programs for their recreational trails rely on treatments that started out as highway or street treatments that may have been modified for use on the trails. The goals of this research project where to study existing treatments, how effective they are, promote new methods, and promote regular scheduled PPT for preserving trail systems. INV 876: The goals of this research were to study the existing preventative maintenance treatments for recreational trails and the effectiveness of those treatments, as well as promote new treatment methods and regular scheduled maintenance to preserve the trails. Test sections of the various treatment methods were evaluated for ease of construction, how successfully they sealed the surface, and trail users' opinions of the surface.
http://www.lrrb.org/detail.aspx?productid=2333

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) State Trail Facts and Figures: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/faq/mnfacts/trails.html

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• preventive
• preventative
• trail
• maintenance
• recreational
• rollerblade
• inline skate
• commute
• bike
• bicycle
• walk
• run
• transportation
• research
• road
• Jake Akervik
• Tom Wood
• Roseville
• paving
• chip seal
• fog seal
• environment
• Local Road Research Board
• materials
• contract
• contracting