Impacts of converting paved roads to gravel roads from the viewpoint of road management and road users

Surface treatment of a gravel road means upgrading the road with thin membrane bituminous surface. Since the end of 1970s, low-volume gravel roads have been paved mainly due to mitigating dusting and lowering annual maintenance costs. Today, potholes and roughness of these old surface-treated roads cause significant problems to traffic and the poor condition of these roads has aroused discontent among road users. The maintenance of surface-treated roads is difficult and maintaining a satisfactory level of service requires higher maintenance costs. Converting these roads to gravel roads is one alternative in road maintenance. The impacts of converting surface-treated roads to gravel roads have been studied from the viewpoint of road maintenance based on feasibility studies which include the estimation of investment costs of removing the pavement and maintenance costs of different types of gravel roads. From the viewpoint of road maintenance only, converting a surface-treated road to gravel road is a more affordable alternative than upgrading a paved road. From the viewpoint of road users, extensive impact studies have not been conducted. The goal of this study is to examine, how road users and residents experience and react to the related impacts along low-volume roads which have already been converted to gravel roads and along paved roads which are proposed to be converted to gravel roads. Professional drivers and residents along the road have a clearly different opinion about the condition and driving comfort of surface-treated roads and gravel roads. Professional drivers feel that poor surface-treated roads are often intolerable due to poor driving comfort, low speed and damages to vehicle stock. Poor condition of both surface-treated roads and gravel roads also decrease traffic safety. Residents feel that dust problems on gravel roads decrease quality of living and the level of service of gravel roads do not meet the expectations of their mobility needs. Furthermore, the disadvantages of gravel roads also include damages to cars and vehicle stock as well as poor conditions for pedestrian and bicycle traffic and reduced possibilities for leisure activities. Residents also fear that the condition of gravel roads will deteriorate over time due to delayed or insufficient maintenance work. A paved road is considered as an acquired benefit and even a poor paved road is regarded as a better alternative than a gravel road. Quality of living along the road and mobility needs of local residents and business life should be used as equal criteria to technical standards when making a decision on converting a paved road to gravel road. Also, the significance of the road in the road network as probably an only through road for freight traffic or access road for passenger traffic should be evaluated. In addition, providing sufficient information on the different phases and timing of the road reconstruction process as well as organizing a hearing with the road users on local circumstances are important parts of the interaction between the road keeper and road users. A planning process, which pays attention to the opinions of residents and other road users before converting a paved road to gravel road will probably contribute to better understanding and acceptability of the final decision. This report may be found at http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/julkaisut/pdf2/3201065-v-soratieksi_palauttaminen.pdf