Geosynthetics have been used in a wide range of applications on forest roads across America over the past 40 years. Some of the earliest uses involved reinforcement in simple walls, drainage/filtration in geocomposite underdrains, and subgrade stabilization on forest roads. These early efforts were typically “experimental”.  Over time geosynthetic use became better defined by function, where use was specified for drainage, filtration, separation, or reinforcement. Road uses were typically in underdrains to keep a granular filter material clean, for separation over soft subgrade soils to keep aggregate from becoming contaminated, as reinforcement layers within a mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall or reinforced fill, and as interlayers within a pavement.

Today geosynthetic use is more sophisticated and better defined, where materials for each function have specific strength and durability properties appropriate for their use. Also, new combinations of materials have been developed, such as drainage geocomposites, multi-layer filters, lateral, in-plane drainage, geogrids with geotextiles, geofoam, geocells, and many applications in erosion control, as well as other creative uses.  Much more attention is given today to quality control and properties testing to better characterize the materials.

Although use of geosynthetics has gained wide acceptance in many sectors of civil engineering and highway construction, its use is still limited on rural and low-volume roads, both nationally and internationally.  Objectives of this presentation are to document and update the evolution of geosynthetics use on rural roads, to document the many creative and cost-effective uses of geosynthetics today, and to promote their usefulness in the construction of low-volume roads. Because of the many useful aspects of geosynthetics in engineering design, their use as “best engineering practices” are valuable to make roads more resilient in this time of climate change.