Method for Assessing Heavy Traffic Impacts on Gravel Roads Serving Oil- and Gas-Drilling Operations

Abstract

In cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Transportation and Sheridan, Johnson, and Carbon Counties, the Wyoming Technology Transfer Center conducted a 3-year pilot asset management program. These counties were chosen because of significant impacts on their road networks from oil- and natural gas–drilling activities. One objective of the program was to assess the impacts of drilling activities on the counties’ roads, with the hope that decision makers would achieve a better understanding of these impacts; this assessment is described. Improvements were recommended for roads with inadequate surface conditions for their functional class. The costs of recommended improvements were examined for both the roads that serve predominantly drilling activities (drilling roads) and the rest of the counties’ roads (nondrilling roads), along with the distresses driving the recommendations. From a comparison of the rate at which improvements were recommended on the drilling and nondrilling roads, conclusions were drawn about the impacts of drilling traffic. The portion of roads in substandard condition is much higher for drilling roads than for nondrilling roads. Clearly, the heavy traffic associated with drilling activities has significantly damaged these three counties’ roads beyond what would be anticipated from typical traffic loads. The proposed method could easily be adapted to other road systems experiencing a significant influx of heavy truck traffic to assess the impact of the additional traffic.