Impact of Forest Road Maintenance Policies on Log Transportation Cost, Routing, and Carbon-Emission Trade-Offs: Oregon Case Study

Abstract

Wood transportation costs have significant impacts on timber investment returns. To optimize transportation costs, a practical design of the route network is necessary for log trucks that ship wood material from timberlands to wood mills. Road conditions resulting from various road maintenance policies dramatically affect speed limits, log-truck route networks, and transportation costs. The effects of road maintenance policies on truck route selection and user/agency cost trade-offs have not been deeply researched. By considering forest-road maintenance policies, this study intends to provide accurate information on timber-processing service coverage and log-truck route selections for forest companies or subcontracted fleets of log trucks. This research also conducts an environmental analysis to assess the effects of various road maintenance policies on consumed energy and greenhouse gas emissions of log trucks. With current maintenance policies, the results indicate that only between 33% and 51% of timber areas in Oregon can be accessed or harvested by existing nearby wood mills. However, application of the proposed road maintenance policy in this paper would increase accessibility to timberlands by up to 104%. The cost of log transportation also decreases by 16%–34%. The methodology developed in this study can lead to improvements in forest road preservation management systems to achieve the full benefits of reducing log-truck emissions and total transportation costs.