United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Montana Go to Accessibility Information
Skip to Page Content




11. Road Closure

Many roads, especially work roads associated with timber harvesting, are designed for use only for a short time. These roads should be closed along with any other roads that are needed only for intermittent travel to minimize maintenance expense and erosion hazards. Two possible situations exist: (a) the road should be closed, but the use is anticipated in the future; and (b) permanent closure is desired.

11.1 Temporary Closure

Steps recommended for temporary road closure are:

  1. Block the road to vehicles.
  2. Remove all temporary culverts including brush and wood types.
  3. Remove all temporary bridges.
  4. Remove all other culverts and bridges that cannot be maintained.
  5. Except on large fill slopes, outslope the road surface and remove all berms, taking care not to spill graded material over the fill slope. The best way to accomplish this is to grade material toward the cut bank. Outslope only enough to divert water over the bank (approximately 2 to 3% plus the slope gradient of the road in percent).
  6. When removing culverts and bridges, be sure all fill material is removed from below the high water line of the stream. All material that is removed should be placed in a safe disposal area. The remaining fill material should be left at a stable angle.
  7. Cross ditch the road tread in accordance with the cross ditch design shown in Figure 11, and the cross-drain spacing guides in Table 4 and Figure 9.
  8. Revegetate the road surface and areas disturbed by road closure operations along with any other areas of exposed soil. Use all re-vegetation procedures necessary (including mulching) to stabilize the site.

11.2 Permanent Closure

Similar procedures are used for permanent road closure except that all bridges and culverts are removed. In addition, it is also desirable to break up road surface compaction to reduce runoff and provide a better site for revegetation. Ripping with a hydraulic ripper is an effective way to accomplish this. Fill material should be removed from any area where mass failure is possible in the future. Place material in a safe disposal area and use erosion control methods at the disposal area.

< Back to Reducing Erosional Impacts of Roads

Last Modified: 07/05/2007