Make better decisions across the life of an unsealed road.
Unsealed roads provide vital access for regional communities, industries, freight and tourism. Yet maintaining a safe and serviceable network with limited budgets, variable materials, changing traffic and increasingly unpredictable weather is a constant challenge.
This practical, face-to-face course gives participants a comprehensive introduction to the principles behind effective unsealed-road design, construction, maintenance and network management.
Drawing on NTRO’s Best Practice Guide to Unsealed Roads, the course connects technical knowledge with the operational and investment decisions practitioners make every day. Learn how to understand your network, classify roads appropriately, recognise the effects of traffic and climate, and balance safety, service levels, community expectations and available funding.
Explore how pavement structure, wearing-course materials, drainage and geometry affect performance. Learn how relatively simple material tests can help predict whether a gravel is likely to perform well – or become prone to ravelling, corrugation, erosion or slipperiness. Examine what can be done when locally available materials do not meet ideal requirements.
The course also tackles the practical realities of maintenance. Learn to identify what is causing a defect and where it originates before selecting a treatment. Compare grading approaches, resheeting considerations, compaction and testing practices, dust-management options and low-cost safety improvements. You will also examine the economic, environmental, safety and community factors that influence when an unsealed road should be sealed.
Each session is delivered by highly experienced NTRO subject-matter experts and supported by case studies drawn from real Australian road networks. Regular question-and-answer sessions let you test the guidance against your own conditions, materials and operational challenges – and draw directly on the lessons our specialists have gained through decades of applied work.
An open forum provides further opportunity to share experiences with the presenters and other practitioners.
A short online assessment completed after the workshop reinforces the key principles and leads to an NTRO certificate of completion.
Register now to strengthen your technical judgement, learn from real-world experience and make more effective decisions across your unsealed-road network.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
