Before the truck comes: preparing your road for dust control

What we do, and what you do

Dust control and road upkeep go hand in hand. The USDA Forest Service guide says, "Since dust suppression and road maintenance efforts are usually combined, it is prudent to include the following practices" before a dust palliative goes down.¹ Split between us, it looks like this:

• You, or whoever maintains the road. Get the shape and drainage right, tell me what's near the road and where it drains, and help pick a dry window.
• Us. We set an appointment, pre-wet the road with water, then spray the lignin sulfonate. You drive on it right away.

Step 1: Get the shape and drainage right

The Forest Service guide lists the road work to do before a dust treatment:¹

1. Repair unstable surfacing and soft spots.
2. Drain the road surface with a crown and crossfall.
3. Take off bony, poorly graded surface material.
4. Grade deep enough to take out the ruts, potholes and erosion gullies.
5. Compact, depending on the treatment.

The FHWA gravel roads manual explains why the crown matters so much. "Standing water anywhere in the roadway will cause the surface to soften and fail. It will leave a pothole in an otherwise good, stabilized roadway."²

If your road needs grading or gravel first, get that done before you book the treatment. My maintenance and washboarding guide covers why roads fail and what fixes them.

Step 2: The surface itself

Prep steps differ by product. For the group lignin sulfonate belongs to (organic non-petroleum products), the Forest Service guide says, "Remove loose material prior to application unless the road surface will be mixed and/or compacted after the spray application."¹

The gravel matters too. The same guide says a road needs higher rates or more frequent treatment when its surface is low in fines (under 10 percent passing a No. 200 sieve) or poorly bladed.¹ Lignin is especially good on roads with more dirt and sand in them. Ask me what your road's surface needs before the day.

Step 3: Tell me what's near the road

When you call or send me the road, tell me:

• Where the treatment should start and stop, and roughly how long it is. The quote form can measure it on a satellite map.
• Where the road drains, whether that's a ditch, a creek or a pond. The Forest Service guide advises checking before a lignin application whether water might drain from the treated area into streams, ponds and lakes.¹
• What's right beside the road, like a well head, a garden, stock or crops.
• Anything that'll be on the road that day, so we can plan around it.
• Whether it's a county-maintained road (see step 6).

Step 4: Pick a dry window

Rain on a fresh treatment is the risk. The Forest Service guide advises applying right after the wet season ends, and it warns, "If applied just before a rain, the material may wash away."¹ If rain's in the forecast for your day, call me about the date. My timing guide covers the Rogue Valley's dry season.

Step 5: On the day, why we pre-wet

Every job starts with water. The Forest Service guide says to dampen the surface first if it's dry.¹ The FHWA gravel roads manual shows a water truck pre-wetting very dry gravel just before treatment and says it "dramatically improves the success of the treatment."² It's a step I don't skip, and since I drive the truck myself, I'm the one who checks it.

Then the truck sprays the lignin. You can drive on it right away, and it's fully dry in about two hours on a hot summer day. It's built to last the season. There's more on the process on how it works.

Step 6: On a county road, the county preps

If your road is county-maintained gravel in Jackson County, the prep is the county's job. Jackson County Roads says it will work with applicators, when they ask, to grade county-maintained sections before the product goes down, and that the prep "is performed at no cost to the applicator or citizens."³

How the program works is in the Jackson County program. Not sure what kind of road you're on? See county road or private road? Ready to book a driveway? Give me a call, or see gravel driveway dust control.