Soil loss and displacement by heavy equipment in forest road subgrading projects

Forest soil is an important component of the natural environment, and is a primary medium for many biological activities. In this study, soil loss and displacement by excavator and bulldozer (heavy equipments) were measured on cut and fills slopes of forest roads located in Mazandaran province, Iran. The volumes of soil losses were estimated by prismoidal analyses of cut and fill slopes deformation between two time treatments (under subgrading and two years later) in slope classes of 30–50% and 50–70%. Weights of soil losses were calculated by multiplying the volumes of soil losses (cm3) to the general bulk density (1.3g/cm3). Soil displaced area by heavy equipment was evaluated according to earth working width. Results indicated that heavy equipment has significant effect on deformation of cut slope gradient and fill slope length (p<0.0001). During the two-year period, the cut (p<0.0002) and fill (p<0.0001) slope gradients were significantly deformed in different slope classes. The average soil loss by excavator and bulldozer were 160.35 t/hayr and 429.09 t/hayr, respectively. Moreover, the soil displaced area during the subgrading process by bulldozer was greater than excavator in both two slope classes (p<0.05). Soil loss and displacement in forest roads can be reduced by applying powerful excavators in subgrading project, especially in steep terrains.