Plan, build and maintain better-performing unsealed roads.
Unsealed roads provide vital access for communities, agriculture, industry and emergency services. Yet changing weather, heavy vehicles, limited materials and constrained budgets make them some of the most demanding assets to manage.
NTRO’s self-paced online course gives you the practical knowledge to meet those challenges.
Start by connecting road hierarchy and community expectations with achievable levels of service. Learn how condition data, lifecycle costing and performance trends can support stronger preservation, investment and road-use strategies.
Put safety at the centre of decision-making. Explore the Safe System approach, identify common unsealed-road hazards and use network-level risk assessment to target practical engineering and non-engineering treatments.
Move from strategy into design. Examine operating speeds, cross-sections, sight distance, horizontal and vertical alignment, intersections and delineation. Learn how to design pavement thickness using traffic, Subgrade strength and gravel-loss allowances –and select or blend materials to reduce corrugation, ravelling, slipperiness and other defects.
Because water is one of the greatest threats to unsealed roads, the course gives particular attention to surface, subsurface and cross-drainage. You will also learn how to plan grading and resheeting, manage dust, prioritise defects and address their underlying causes.
Finally, follow the construction process from site preparation and drainage to earthworks, pavement placement, moisture control, compaction and quality verification. Explore how erosion, sediment, vegetation, biodiversity and dust controls contribute to durable and environmentally responsible outcomes.
Developed with NTRO’s unsealed-road expertise, the course combines technical guidance with worked examples, practical scenarios and knowledge checks. It is based on NTRO’s Best Practice Guide to Unsealed Roads, provided as a downloadable reference companion.
Build roads that perform better, cost less to maintain and keep communities connected. Enrol now.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
