TY - JOUR PY - 2007// TI - Best Practices for Pavement Edge Maintenance Farm-to-Market Road System in Texas JO - Transportation research record A1 - Hossain, M. A1 - Lawson, William SP - 265 EP - 271 VL - 1989 IS - N2 - The problem of pavement edge drop-offs as a maintenance, safety, and liability issue for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is discussed. The objectives for this 2-year research project - to identify and to communicate best practices effectively for pavement edge maintenance - were accomplished by capturing more than 3,700 years of institutional knowledge from maintenance leaders representing all 25 TxDOT districts. The research focuses on maintenance practices for naturally occurring edge drop-offs, with an emphasis on low-volume roads. The key factors causing edge drop-offs are narrow road width or absence of shoulders, traffic volume and type, and adverse environmental conditions. Tracy's law-"if you lose the edge, you lose the road"-provides a key perspective on meeting these challenges and points out that good edge maintenance strategy is important in achieving good roads and that without good edge maintenance, a district cannot achieve good roads. Edge maintenance practices and procedures fall into three broad categories: awareness, preventive maintenance, and edge repair techniques. Road widening, both in-house by using TxDOT forces and by formal contract, emerged as the ultimate practice for long-term treatment of edge problems. Districts use conventional, in-house-modified, and commercially manufactured equipment specifically dealing with pavement edge maintenance to address the edge drop-off issue. Because of the significant financial resources devoted to pavement edge maintenance, several tools are used to improve the planning and allocation of edge maintenance funds.

LA - en SN - 0361-1981 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3141/1989-31 ID - ref1 ER -