ORV Management Practices Manual: Strategy 7

Strategy 7.	Maintain Marked Routes
Tactic 7.1	Add Fill Material in Problem Areas
Purpose	Prevent or reduce resource damage through route maintenance that corrects impassable problem spots.
Description	Fill material is applied to problem spots along commonly used routes to ensure that the majority of vehicles can pass safely. Level of maintenance must be minimally sufficient to prevent excessive route widening or development of parallel routes.
Costs to ORV Visitors	Low. Route improvement is beneficial, lessening the chance of becoming stuck. Additional traffic on maintained routes may contribute to visitor crowding or conflicts with ORV and non-ORV visitors.
Costs to Management	High. Route maintenance is expensive, requiring staff, heavy equipment, and fill material (locally available or purchased).
Effectiveness	Moderate-High. High management costs may prevent an adequate level of maintenance. Also dependent upon the amount of traffic that routes receive. Long-term effectiveness of adding fill material is unknown.
Comments	Maintenance work can only be done during the driest seasons (late winter and spring). Many areas requiring work are remote and difficult to access. Short problem spots could corrected to the width of a single vehicle, longer sections would require a width sufficient to allow two vehicles to pass each other. The goal of maintenance is to sustain existing traffic, not to improve a route such that additional traffic is attracted.

Strategy 7.	Maintain Marked Routes
Tactic 7.2	Use Geosynthetics in Problem Areas
Purpose	Prevent or reduce resource damage through route maintenance that corrects impassable problem spots.
Description	Geosynthetic materials and fill is applied to problem spots along high-use routes to so that the majority of vehicles can pass safely. Level of maintenance must be minimally sufficient to prevent excessive route widening or development of parallel routes.
Costs to ORV Visitors	Low. Route improvement is beneficial, lessening the chance of becoming stuck. Additional traffic on maintained routes may contribute to visitor crowding or conflicts with ORV and non-ORV visitors.
Costs to Management	High. Route maintenance is expensive, requiring staff, heavy equipment, fill material, and geosynthetics. Use of geosynthetics may not be more expensive than use of fill alone as geosynthetics require less fill material and work may last longer.
Effectiveness	High. High management costs may prevent an adequate level of maintenance. Also dependent upon the amount of traffic that routes receive. Geosynthetics should improve the effectiveness of this work though their long-term effectiveness is unknown.
Comments	See comments under 7.1.

Strategy 7.	Maintain Marked Routes
Tactic 7.3	Construct At-Grade Routes
Purpose	Prevent or reduce resource damage by constructing at-grade routes able to sustain intensive traffic.
Description	At-grade routes are constructed using larger aggregate fill material, replacing unstable substrates where necessary. Tread surfaces are constructed to be level with adjacent substrates and designed to minimize interference with surface water movement.
Costs to ORV Visitors	Low. Route improvement is beneficial, lessening the chance of becoming stuck. Additional traffic on maintained routes may contribute to visitor crowding or conflicts with ORV and non-ORV visitors.
Costs to Management	High. Route construction is expensive, requiring staff, heavy equipment, and imported fill.
Effectiveness	High. High management costs will limit the use of this tactic. Also dependent upon the amount of traffic that routes receive. The long-term effectiveness of such at-grade routes is unknown.
Comments	Construction work can only be done during the driest seasons (late winter and spring). This option is likely to be applicable only in the most highly visited and more accessible areas.

Strategy 7.	Maintain Marked Routes
Tactic 7.4	Designate or Maintain Above-Grade Roads
Purpose	Prevent or reduce resource damage by designating and/or maintaining above-grade routes able to sustain intensive traffic.
Description	Traditional above-grade routes are designated and/or maintained for ORV use, replacing unstable substrates where necessary.
Costs to ORV Visitors	Low. Route improvement is beneficial, lessening the chance of becoming stuck. Additional traffic on maintained routes may contribute to visitor crowding or conflicts with ORV and non-ORV visitors.
Costs to Management	Low-Moderate. Road designated is inexpensive, maintenance can is much more costly, requiring staff, heavy equipment, and fill.
Effectiveness	High. Traffic is sustained on above grade roadbeds.
Comments	Routes should be oriented parallel to water flow where possible and frequent water conveyance across routes must be provided.