Mitigation Highlight of the Season - Winter, 2009
Fayette, Maine
Fayette Takes a New Approach for Bog Road
Prior to 2004, Fayette, Maine had a washout-prone headache referred to locally as "Bog Road." Originally built as a logging road across a bog and like many strategically placed temporary gravel roads, it has become a well traveled shortcut.
A severe winter storm in 2004 resulted in flooding, snow melt and ice jams.
Fayette Corner Road, aka Bog Road, took another hit. The gravel base eroded.
Stone ditch protection was lost. Ditches filled with sediment and a 40 foot by 18 inch culvert was destroyed.
But the status quo was about to change. The Fayette road maintenance crew had recently learned about geotextiles at a Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) Local Roads workshop, funded by a Federal Highway Administration grant. When facing yet another repair to Bog Road, the Fayette road crew discussed using geotextiles with the FEMA Public Assistance project officer assigned to Fayette.
Geotextiles are permeable fabrics, engineered to control drainage. When used in association with stone and soil, they have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Geotextiles often yield benefits in public works projects involving roads, embankments, retaining structures, bank protection and coastal engineering.
In a federally declared disaster area, mitigation measures may be added to infrastructure repair projects that are eligible for FEMA Public Assistance, under 406 Program Mitigation. FEMA will pay 75% of both the repair and the mitigation. The state and local governments provide the remaining 25% matching funds, allowing small towns, like Fayette, to utilize FEMA funding to try a new approach to an old problem.
The repair cost was $23,400. For an additional $2,000, more than 10,000 square feet of geo-textile fabric was installed underneath the gravel at the damaged site.
Each of the next three years brought a spring storm that resulted in federal disaster declarations. The last storm dumped close to 8 inches of wind-driven rain on Maine and the other New England states. The geotextile repaired section of Bog Road stayed intact.
"You have to think like water" said Town Manager Mark Robinson. "Whenever we reconstruct a section of road, geotextiles are applied and with good reason. Fabric separates your road foundation material like mud, boulders, corduroy logs, from the good gravel you add on top of the fabric. If you don't separate them, you and the road are likely to fail".
But the status quo was about to change. The Fayette road maintenance crew had recently learned about geotextiles at a Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) Local Roads workshop, funded by a Federal Highway Administration grant. When facing yet another repair to Bog Road, the Fayette road crew discussed using geotextiles with the FEMA Public Assistance project officer assigned to Fayette.
Geotextiles are permeable fabrics, engineered to control drainage. When used in association with stone and soil, they have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Geotextiles often yield benefits in public works projects involving roads, embankments, retaining structures, bank protection and coastal engineering.
In a federally declared disaster area, mitigation measures may be added to infrastructure repair projects that are eligible for FEMA Public Assistance, under 406 Program Mitigation. FEMA will pay 75% of both the repair and the mitigation. The state and local governments provide the remaining 25% matching funds, allowing small towns, like Fayette, to utilize FEMA funding to try a new approach to an old problem.
The repair cost was $23,400. For an additional $2,000, more than 10,000 square feet of geo-textile fabric was installed underneath the gravel at the damaged site.
Each of the next three years brought a spring storm that resulted in federal disaster declarations. The last storm dumped close to 8 inches of wind-driven rain on Maine and the other New England states. The geotextile repaired section of Bog Road stayed intact.
"You have to think like water" said Town Manager Mark Robinson. "Whenever we reconstruct a section of road, geotextiles are applied and with good reason. Fabric separates your road foundation material like mud, boulders, corduroy logs, from the good gravel you add on top of the fabric. If you don't separate them, you and the road are likely to fail".
Smart Practice
The Town of Fayette is now using geotextiles on a regular basis and co-hosted a geotextiles workshop for surrounding towns with the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), featuring FEMA Mitigation Specialist, Richard Downer, a former Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Vermont.
Representatives from Hallowell, Readfield and Wayne, Maine attended the workshop and visited Fayette Ridge Road, a site recently repaired with geotextiles after the April 2007 storm.
Last Modified: Friday, 05-Jun-2009 11:03:38 EDT