Logging Haul Road, Tauranga – DuraForce® WG

PF Olsen was conducting a harvesting operation and encountered some very soft and saturated ground conditions. As harvesting is very time-sensitive and any standing time is loss of production a quick solution to overcome this problem was much needed. Traditionally the use of corduroy roads, which is branches and brush offcuts placed underneath a layer of thick brown rock, would be used to mitigate these situations, however, this was not viable due to the time frames needed.

Design

Cirtex visited the site and gave an initial recommendation to use DuraForce WG80 geotextile, together with 400mm of GAP65. A trial section was considered to confirm this was going to be a viable option. During installation, Cirtex was on site offering support as well as assisting with the installation.

Installation

There was a definite improvement in the ground conditions over the poor section and much-increased serviceability. As this was a temporary road, some shoving and rutting occurred which is expected in this application.

With only a 3-man crew available it was an advantage that geosynthetics are easier to install than creating a corduroy road.

The DuraForce product used provided the following benefits to the project:

• Quicker mitigation of poor ground conditions (time decreased from discovering poor section to constructing over it)
• Budget saving option due to less imported aggregate
• Less loss of production on site
• Improved haul road with less effort