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Virginia Tech has produced a tool to calculate the costs of road construction, maintenance, and closure of forest roads and skid trails.The information is included in an article titled “Virginia Tech Forest Road and Bladed Skid Trail Cost Estimation Method”, and was published in the Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 36(1) 2012, pp 26 to 32. The authors were J Conrad, W Ford, M Groover, M Bolding and W Aust. The Microsoft Excel-based tool has the goal of assisting foresters estimate costs for forest road and skid trail construction, maintenance and closure. The tool makes use of five cost categories:
- Stream crossings
- Road construction
- Improvement and maintenance of existing roads
- Bladed skid trail construction
- Closure of the above
The cost estimates are based on published road information, as well as information from quarries, excavation companies, and personal communication with forest road experts. All cost inputs can be modified by the user of the tool to ensure that local conditions are considered. The user should have basic knowledge of local costs to ensure that the correct values are allocated to the various categories.
The costing tool has been field tested and was found to provide an acceptably accurate estimate for foresters and contractors who want to quickly estimate their road construction and maintenance costs. Please access the journal article for a more complete account of the article.
Source: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/saf/sjaf/2012/00000036/00000001/art00004