Workshops

Gravel Road Maintenance:

Maintaining Gravel Roads Training Sessions: Workshops are scheduled when there is a request from municipalities.

Meeting the Challenge: DVD - 22 minutes - The objective of the video is to show maintenance workers, supervisors and engineers the proper way to perform gravel road maintenance. There are 4 maintenance topics: Correct Roadway Shape, Shaping the Roadway, Good Surface Gravel, and Dust Control. Ken Skorseth, field services manager for South Dakota LTAP Center, narrates this video and does the presentations. This DVD is available now from our video library and you can also view video clips of this by going to the following website: http://www.mnltap.umn.edu/resources/videos/GravelRoadMaintenance/ (note: you need a high speed internet connection for this).

GRADER OPERATOR TRAINING

Since 1989, over 1000 participants from over 230 towns and cities in Maine have attended this program. This is a 2 part program and a municipal operator or contractor can attend either 1 or 2 days.

Day 1 Class Room

Day 2 Hands-on Grader Training

Day 1 is designed for selectmen, town managers, road commissioners, supervisors, foremen, public works directors, in addition to operators and private contractors, especially those who need to learn how gravel roads should be maintained.

Topics include:

maintaining proper drainage by shaping & ditching.
"parts" of a road
good vs. bad gravel
dust control
Dig Safe
culverts
grader operation/techniques
using a "hand level" to set grades

Day 2 is for public and private operators who've had some experience on a grader or who are "in-training" to be an operator. We strongly recommend that anyone attending this field training should attend Day 1 also.

Our professional trainer/operator, Arnold Fox, will come to work with you on your grader on your local roads for ONE FULL DAY (OR MORE). He'll typically cover shaping and maintenance of crown and shoulders, ditching and side and back sloping. For many operators, this field training has had an effect of helping to break some "bad habits".

If your town does not own a grader (or it's in poor condition) or your road commissioner (who's also a private contractor) or your private contractor working for the town is interested in the field training, we can arrange to work with him or with an adjacent town who has a grader.

COST:
BOTH DAYS = $125 per person
DAY 1 only = $25 per person
DAY 2 only = $100 per person

During the Day 1 session, a sign-up sheet will be circulated for each operator to pick a date over the following several weeks for their day of "hands on" training. With some minor scheduling adjustments, we'll arrange to come to your town to work with you on your (or your neighbor's) grader. We highly recommend that everyone take advantage of this second day. Whether you've operated a grader for 40 years or 1 year, we'll almost guarantee that you'll benefit from this program.

Grader

A training manual was prepared for use in workshops This notebook being presented at various locations throughout the State as part of an on-going road assistance program developed by the Maine Local Roads Center. Much of the material was adapted from the publication, Operator Handbook - Motor Grader Operator Short Course, prepared by the Nebraska Technology Transfer Center, 1988.

The workshops are intended for those municipal employees who are responsible for seeing that gravel roadways are adequately maintained to meet the public need and who require a working knowledge of gravel road characteristics, basic maintenance procedures, and grader operator skills. These notes seek to present this information in understandable and practical terms.