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April 2004
Minnesota-developed handbook to aid Afghan road reconstruction
The U.S. Army will use techniques from an erosion control handbook developed in Minnesota to help rebuild roads in Afghanistan this spring. The Erosion Control Handbook for Local Roads was published last year by the Minnesota Local Road Research Board’s Research Implementation Committee (LRRB-RIC), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, Mn/DOT, and the Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) at CTS.
Officials from the U.S. Army Afghanistan area office in Kabul read an article published in the FHWA Transporter newsletter about the handbook, says Jon Schans, affiliates program coordinator with the FHWA Office of Professional Development. “Kudos to Minnesota LTAP and everyone involved in developing [the] manual,” Schans says.
The RIC technical advisory panel that guided the project included representatives from Mn/DOT and several Minnesota counties; and a national advisory board included members from organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service. Ann Johnson, chair of the CTS Education/Outreach Council, is the handbook’s author.
The 120-page, full-color handbook provides guidelines and methods for effective control of erosion on low-volume roads. It is available on the Minnesota LTAP Web site as a PDF.