Strata Global

Access roads

What are access roads?

Access roads play a critical role in transportation and infrastructure development. They serve specific functions, providing connectivity to areas like construction sites, forests, state institutions, and sources of raw materials. Despite their simplicity compared to regular roads, access roads offer numerous benefits, especially in specialized operations like timber harvesting and site development. This article delves into the detailed definition, benefits, and distinctions between access roads and regular roads.

Access roads are specialized public or private roads designed to provide entry to a specific area. These areas may include:

  • Construction sites: Facilitating movement of machinery, materials, and personnel.
  • Timber harvesting operations: Connecting logging sites with the main road network.
  • Military establishments: Ensuring secure and efficient transport.
  • State parks and forests: Enabling visitor access while protecting natural landscapes.

Access roads are constructed with the primary goal of minimizing environmental impact, including soil erosion and disruption to surface waters.

Types of access roads

1. Temporary access roads

These are built for short-term use, such as during construction projects. They are often made from gravel or compacted dirt and removed after project completion.

2. Permanent access roads

Designed for long-term access, these roads might feature more durable construction materials, such as asphalt or concrete. Examples include roads leading to industrial facilities or permanent forest management sites.

Key features of access roads

Environmental considerations

Access roads are constructed with environmental sensitivity in mind. Measures include:

  • Erosion control: Proper grading and drainage structures reduce sedimentation in nearby water bodies.
  • Surface flow management: Roads are designed to maintain natural hydrological patterns.

Design and maintenance

Access roads are built to lower standards than regular roads, often with gravel or dirt surfaces. While they lack features like curbs, sidewalks, and traffic signs, their design ensures functionality for specific purposes, such as transporting heavy equipment or logging vehicles. Maintenance activities include:

Benefits of access roads

1. Improved transportation and safety

Access roads facilitate smoother traffic flow and reduce vehicle conflicts, leading to increased safety. For construction or logging sites, they ensure safe transportation of heavy machinery and personnel.

2. Enhanced accessibility

These roads provide essential connectivity to remote areas, such as forests, mining sites, or rural locations. Improved accessibility has a ripple effect on local economies and communities.

3. Cost and time efficiency

Constructing access roads is often faster and less expensive than building regular roads. This efficiency benefits short-term projects like construction or logging operations.

4. Support for economic activities

  • Increased employment opportunities: Access roads enable industries such as forestry, mining, and agriculture, which generate long-term jobs.
  • Better access to markets: Farmers and businesses gain improved routes to sell their goods and services.

5. Environmental protection

Properly designed access roads reduce environmental degradation by incorporating features like drainage control structures, sediment traps, and erosion barriers.

How are access roads different from regular roads?

Purpose and function

  • Access roads: Serve a specific function, such as providing entry to a construction site, forest, or industrial facility.
  • Regular roads: Cater to the general public and support diverse traffic types and patterns.

Construction standards

  • Access roads: Built to lower standards, often using gravel or compacted dirt.
  • Regular roads: Follow strict safety and quality regulations, with pavements, curbs, and other advanced features.

Traffic and maintenance

  • Access roads: Typically handle light, specialized traffic, such as construction vehicles or logging trucks. Maintenance is less frequent and focused on usability rather than aesthetics.
  • Regular roads: Designed for high traffic volumes, including public and commercial vehicles, with regular maintenance for safety and durability.

Environmental impact

Access roads prioritize minimizing disruption to natural landscapes, while regular roads balance environmental considerations with broader infrastructure needs.

Purpose and function

The role of access roads in specialized operations

Access roads in construction

Access roads are critical in construction projects. They allow machinery, materials, and workers to reach the site efficiently, minimizing delays and disruptions. Features include:

  • Temporary bridges or culverts to maintain surface flows.
  • Erosion control measures to protect nearby waterways.

Access roads in forestry and timber harvesting

In silviculture, access roads connect logging operations to main roads. They are designed to:

  • Reduce soil erosion and sedimentation.
  • Support heavy machinery like skidders and logging trucks.

The spacing of drainage control structures is determined by the road grade and slope, ensuring sustainable forest management.

Access roads in parks and recreational areas

State parks and national forests often rely on access roads to manage visitor flow. These roads are:

  • Designed to blend with natural landscapes.
  • Equipped with minimal infrastructure to preserve the environment.

Access roads are indispensable for specialized functions, including construction, forestry, and state park management. Although vastly different in their designs, specifications, and purposes, the access roads play an enormous role in accessibility as well as safety, particularly due to their economic development contribution. Combining environmental aspects and cost-effectiveness, these roads maintain a vital role within sustainable development and construction.

Need a consultation? We’re at your service.

Tell us a little about yourself and what you’re looking for, and our experts will get back to you with a perfect solution!

Harold W. Hill, Jr

Director, President – Glen Raven Technical Fabrics

Strata/Glen Raven tenure: 10 years/28 years
Total industry experience: 35 years


MBA – Wake Forest University

 

Directs the strategic direction of Glen Raven’s automotive, protective apparel, military, geogrid, outdoor and logistic businesses.

J. Craig Bell

Director, General Manager, Strata Inc.

Strata/Strata Inc. tenure: 3 years/14 years
Total industry experience: 25 years


MBA – Georgia State University

 

Led the integration of Strata Inc. business operations into the headquarters of GRTF and transition from USA based to India based manufacturing.

Ashok Bhawnani

Director

Strata tenure: 17 years
Total industry experience: 47 years

CA – ICA

 

Played a key role in the establishment of Strata’s India operations. Provides vision for product innovation and leveraging new technology trends.

Phil McGoldrick

Global Technical Sales Director

Strata tenure: 7 years
Total industry experience: 32 years


Civil & Geotechnical Engineer (First class)


Provides highly technical and innovative civil engineering solutions in India and around the world. Responsible for the design and execution of large-scale geotechnical projects around the world including Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and South America.

Shahrokh Bagli

CTO – Chief Technology Officer

Strata tenure: 9 years
Total industry experience: 48 years


BTech (Hons), MTech (Civil) Both IIT Bombay, DMS (Bombay University), FIE, FIGS, Chartered Engineer

 

Streamlines the designs of Geosynthetics and has brought innovation in geogrid and geocell design application.

Mujib Katrawala

COO – Projects and Sales

Strata tenure: 13 years
Total industry experience: 24 years


MBA – University of Gujarat

 

Leads the monetization of products and solutions while ensuring highest execution quality and project profitability.

Chandrashekhar Kanade

COO – Technical Textiles

Strata tenure: 13 years
Total industry experience: 33 years


BE (Mechanical) – Nagpur University

 

Drives excellence in process design, product features and cost effectiveness in production.

Govind Keswani

CFO – Chief Financial Officer

Strata tenure: 8 years
Total industry experience: 35 years


CA – ICA, ICWA – ICWAI

 

Leads the finance, accounting, taxation, commercial, legal and IT functions and assisting on all strategic and operational matters.

Gautam Dalmia

CDO – Chief Development Officer

Strata tenure: 10 years
Total industry experience: 13 years


MBA – ISB, Hyderabad

 

Leads diversification of the product portfolio, monetizing the new products and ensuring successful sustained financial growth of the company top line.

Narendra Dalmia

CEO – Chief Executive Officer

Strata tenure: 14 years
Total industry experience: 42 years


B Tech (Chemical) – IIT Delhi

 

Leads day-to-day business operations of the company with focus on capacity expansion, product and process improvement.

Need a consultation? We’re at your service.

Tell us a little about yourself and what you’re looking for, and our experts will get back to you with a perfect solution!


Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class "ALInfo" not found in /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-content/plugins/airlift/buffer/cache.php:254 Stack trace: #0 [internal function]: ALCache->optimizePageAndSaveCache() #1 /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-includes/functions.php(5464): ob_end_flush() #2 /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): wp_ob_end_flush_all() #3 /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook->apply_filters() #4 /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action() #5 /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-includes/load.php(1279): do_action() #6 [internal function]: shutdown_action_hook() #7 {main} thrown in /var/www/vhosts/strataglobal.com/httpdocs/wp-content/plugins/airlift/buffer/cache.php on line 254