Operational Service Management System of Forest Roads

The joint-stock company Latvian State Forests is the largest Latvian forest management company; it manages approximately 1.6 million ha of state-owned forests. Key areas of activity are forest management and development. The company maintains a network of forest roads to provide for the removal of timber from the forests to supply cooperative partners. At the beginning of 2010, the company owned a network of roads with a total length of 10,158 km. In 2009, 5 million m³ of timber were transported through this network of forest roads. Options for forest road operation in Latvia depend largely on weather conditions. After extended or intense rain or during spring thaws, the forest road surfacings are too wet, resulting in a significant reduction in their bearing capacity. When the bearing capacity of the pavement layers is low, there is heavy damage to or even destruction of the pavement in the course of timber transportation. Every year hundreds of kilometers of forest roads have to be repaired or even rebuilt because they are operated under inappropriate circumstances. To develop a management system, a research project was organized, which was expected to be fully completed in 5 years. During the first 2 years the principal part of the research took place—development of a basic model of the forest road network management system. The next 3 years of the study are provided for the introduction of this model. The study is to be carried out in seven stages, the first two of which have been completed. This paper describes the progress and conclusions made during the first two stages of the research. Completion of the remaining five stages is expected during the next 3 years.