Unpaved Road Chemical Treatment Selection Tool

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Instructions

  1. Understand and accept the disclaimer on the home page. You must accept the disclaimer before you can start the treatment selection process. You will need to accept the disclaimer each time you access the website.
  2. Enter the road number or name as well as a short project description. Note that only the characters visible on the screen will be seen on later print outs.
  3. From the laboratory grading analysis, enter the percent passing the 25 mm, 4.75 mm, 2.36 mm, 0.425 mm, and 0.075 mm (1 in., #4, #8, #40, and #200) sieves in the appropriate spaces. Values must be entered into all cells. An error message will show if the value entered is larger than the previous cell entry.
  4. From the laboratory Atterberg Limit test results, enter the plasticity index. If the material is non plastic, enter 0. If the results sheet shows “slightly plastic”, enter 1. A value must be entered before being able to continue. If you have done a bar linear shrinkage test as proposed in the UCPRC Guideline, then enter this value multiplied by two (i.e., BLS result x 2) instead of using the plasticity index.
  5. Check the chart on the left of the screen to understand how the material is likely to perform before treatment. If the material plots far from the “good” box, material modification may be required prior to application as the selected treatment may limit, but not prevent the distress from occurring. Note that “good” materials will still have some dust and that an appropriate chemical treatment should be used to preserve these fines and prevent the road from deteriorating to a “washboards and ravels” condition, and to extend intervals between grader maintenance and gravel replacement. Click here to view/download the complete UCPRC guideline document (Guidelines for the Selection, Specification, and Application of Chemical Dust Control and Stabilization Treatments on Unpaved Roads), which includes a chapter on interpreting material performance from this chart (see Chapter 2).
  6. Select an objective for wanting to use a chemical treatment:
    1. Short-term dust control (spray-on). Select this objective for temporary dust control such as detours, or short-term vehicle access such as logging operations, fire control access, military exercises, temporary runways, etc.
    2. Long-term fines preservation (spray-on). Select this objective if you plan to spray a chemical treatment to existing road surfaces as part of a longer-term management strategy to control dust for safety/health/quality of life reasons as well as to preserve fines, thereby reducing maintenance costs and increasing gravel replacement intervals. Rejuvenations will be required.
    3. Long-term fines preservation/surface stabilization (mix-in). Select this objective if you plan to mix the chemical treatment into the road surface (either during reshaping or as part of a regravelling operation) for the same reasons listed in (b) but with improved performance due to depth of mixing and subsequent compaction and surface sealing. This is considered as the most appropriate management strategy for fines preservation on unpaved roads.
    4. Long-term stabilization (mix-in). Select this objective if the purpose of the treatment is to improve all-weather passability as well as preserve fines as listed in (b) and (c). Note that concentrated liquid stabilizers may not reduce dust to the same levels as other treatments and that a separate dust control treatment may be required in addition to the stabilization.
  7. Select a traffic level from the drop down list. Note that some treatments are effective at traffic levels much higher that 250 vehicles per day; however, additional testing and engineering judgment may be required to determine whether acceptable performance can be obtained for a specific set of conditions. More frequent rejuvenations may be required at these higher traffic levels.
  1. Select a climate factor:
    1. “Dry” implies areas where average daily relative humidity levels are less than 40% for periods of more than 20 days and that high intensity rainfall events are uncommon.
    2. “Damp” implies average daily humidity levels are generally above 40% and that high intensity rainfall events are uncommon.
    3. “Wet” implies that high intensity storm events are common, which may lead to leaching of treatments, temporary slipperiness, and/or temporary impassability. Areas with high annual average rainfall are also considered in this climate factor, and although dust control/fines preservation is not common in these areas, improvements in all-weather passability may be of interest.
  2. Check if more than 10% of the daily traffic is trucks.
  3. Check if steep gradients dominate the road to be treated (i.e., road maintenance activities are dominated by distresses on these grades).
  4. Check if sharp curves dominate the road to be treated (i.e., road maintenance activities are dominated by distresses on these curves).
  5. Click on the “Compute Ratings” button to get recommendations for appropriate chemical treatments. Note that if changes are made to any of the input values, you must click on the “Compute Ratings” button again to accept the changes and recompute the rating.
  6. Click on the “Environmental and Other Influences” button to understand potential environmental impacts, effects of soil chemistry on treatment choice, and whether treatments can be maintained with conventional unpaved road maintenance techniques. Use the browser back button or click on “Treatment Selection” tab to return to the current “Treatment Selection” page with your input data.
  7. Click on the “Suppliers” button to link to a list of known manufacturers and distributors of unpaved road chemical treatments in the United States. The list will open in a separate browser window. The University of California Davis does not endorse the use of any specific product or treatment. The list is provided for information purposes only and is NOT a recommendation for any product. The University of California makes no claim that the list includes all products currently available in the United States, that the products have been correctly categorized, that any product will provide satisfactory performance, that the products are safe to use, that the products will not have any environmental impact, or that the products listed are available in all states. No product was intentionally excluded from the database.
  8. Click on the “Print” button to print the screen. Note that you will need to make appropriate settings on your printer setup page. A landscape format is recommended.