Designing gravel road for fire engine loads
Designing gravel road for fire engine loads
(OP)
The fire chief wants me to prove that a gravel ranch road is adequate to support a 75,000 lb fire truck. Being a ranch road, traffic is very light. There will just be the occasional, if ever, instance of a fire truck driving by.
Normally, I use EAL, TI, etc., along with R-values to design a pavement section. But this seems more of a bearing capacity problem to me. What's the usual procedure here? How do you distribute the 75,000 lb to point loads per tire?
Normally, I use EAL, TI, etc., along with R-values to design a pavement section. But this seems more of a bearing capacity problem to me. What's the usual procedure here? How do you distribute the 75,000 lb to point loads per tire?





RE: Designing gravel road for fire engine loads
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"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill
RE: Designing gravel road for fire engine loads
One thing to consider is that gravel surfaces will deteriorate, so while you may want to appease the fire department requirements now, it's just as important to remind your client that resurfacing the driveway will be important. The last thing you want to do is design something that may not work as intended (say in 15 years) when a fire truck actually needs to use it.
RE: Designing gravel road for fire engine loads
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