Municipalities need to get the message about rural road design

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

With farm equipment getting bigger and limited road shoulders more common, the danger of accidents and rollovers on country roads is increasing. Municipal road designers take heed!

by RALPH WINFIELD

Last month, I talked about how farm units are becoming larger to keep the unit cost of production down. By the same token, as farm units get bigger, so does the size of farm equipment that must be moved on the public roadways to travel between farms.

In previous years, many of us travelled local public roadways with machinery up to 16 feet wide. All the older 21-row end wheel grain drills reached that limit. Yes, many of us pushed that limit with 15-foot or even 20-foot grain headers and six-row corn headers. We had to be ever mindful of mailboxes, bridge railings, guard rails and most importantly, oncoming traffic. But, for the most part, we tried to move the equipment primarily during daylight hours – for our own safety as well as the safety of all the things mentioned above.

As combines and tractors have become wider in the last 10 years, the travel problem has increased significantly. Both tractors and combines have dualled and in some cases tripled drive wheels for flotation and to transmit the increased power to the ground. The bigger headers, of course, have to travel endwise on wagons. This is not only essential for road travel but also very convenient for putting the newer 20-to-40-foot headers into storage buildings.

The real problem. Many rural municipalities are gradually rebuilding their road systems. This is good for most purposes, such as better vehicle travel. However, many of the country roads are being built up using the original right-of-way width of four rods or 66 feet. In many locations, this leaves very narrow road shoulders or none at all.

This arrangement is great for road drainage and winter snow removal. The snow can easily be winged off the travelled roadway into the ditches. However, a shoulderless road presents a real hazard for wide farm machinery and oncoming vehicle traffic. There is insufficient road width available for passing or for meeting oncoming traffic.

The lack of roadway width presents a particular hazard when the oncoming driver expects that he or she is entitled to half of the travelled roadway. The tractor or combine operator cannot move partly off onto the shoulder. One unit or the other must seek refuge in a laneway entrance or other wide location and stop to permit passage.

The reality. Many non-farm rural travellers do not appreciate the problem and in most cases are unwilling to give up their right of passage.

Such confrontations on even the major roadways, which often have a wider right of way (100 feet) and some shoulder, has tended to cause the wider farmer-operated equipment to move onto the narrower rural roads where the no-shoulder situation is becoming a much greater concern.

Even my wife avoids the newly built-up road next to our farm during planting and harvest seasons. The road itself is much higher than the ditch, which often has a very steep slope. Should a car head for the ditch, it would be a sure rollover. In the fog or the winter, if snow camouflages the edge of the road, it is an equally dangerous situation.

Farm equipment is definitely not going to decrease in size and is likely to increase. Most wide tillage and planting equipment that folds is folded as tightly as is practical.

So municipal road designers and builders need to get the message loud and clear. The travelled portion of the road must be wider than the width normally available in a 66-foot right of way with a significant ditch on either or both sides.

If steep road shoulders continue to be built, there will be an increase in vehicle rollovers into the deeper ditches. This will be of great concern, especially to insurance companies. If claims and loss of life increase, the insurers will start suing the municipalities.

We must also not forget the need for cyclists and pedestrians, who are also entitled to use the roadway and need a safe path, preferably off the travelled portion of the road.

Yes, it will cost money and time to widen rural road right of ways, but the sooner the process is started, the faster it will be completed for the benefit of all road users. BF

Agricultural engineer Ralph Winfield farms at Belmont in Elgin County.