Lösningar för snabbare utveckling av skogsbilvägar

Mål, syfte och förväntad nytta

The current project aims to develop the forest roads in Sweden to promote fluent transport of forest raw materials even during critical climate conditions and under high gross weight of trucks.

The project will investigate measures to increase the bearing capacity of forest roads (via new technologies for stabilization, drainage and material selection) and test new practical equipment when assessing the condition of new and existing forest roads, especially during freeze-thaw periods.

To help solving the aforementioned problems, the suggested proposal includes a knowledge compilation study on the most recent research and measures available nationally and internationally that the universities and research institutes have come up with so far. This action will help to increase the degree of innovation in maintaining the existing Swedish forest roads and in constructing the new ones.

In order to bridge the gap between the researchers from one side and the forest industry and forest roads holders from the other side, the proposed project has heavily engaged demands owners from industry. Nine forest roads holders and organizations will participate in the project to contribute to solving their forest roads problems in addition to two research institutes.

The project encompasses everything from developing innovative and functional materials to design and construction methods for designing functional forest roads in Sweden something which goes well with the Infra Sweden 2030 objectives.

The project covers many areas in the transport infrastructure sector that can be developed in the framework for this project as described below:

• More efficient construction of forest roads including quality monitoring using new technologies used by VTI.
• Suggestions for modern and efficient operation and maintenance for the forest roads in Sweden.
• New innovative technologies and materials for repair and life extension of new and existing forest roads will be tested at large scale within the timeline of the project something which goes well with the call requirement of quick development of the transport infrastructures in Sweden.
• In the long run, the project will contribute to develop the forest roads accessibility and rise the accessibility classes of the existing roads something which goes well with InfraSwedens goals.
• The project will lead to increasing competitiveness for the Swedish individual roads sector through more sustainable and functional forest roads that can keep pace with the good performance of the public roads.

Reduction of the transport infrastructure’s climate and environmental impact by reducing CO2 emission. If more forest roads will be developed to withstand the heavy gross weight of trucks (i.e. 64 and 74 tones), this will reduce carbon dioxide emissions as a lower number of trucks will be required to transport the same volume of forest products.

Projektets behovsägare

Forest industry and forest roads holders. The demands owners in the proposed project represent about 82% of the consortium of which 66% are contractors from the industry (i.e. six partners of a total of eleven partners are contractors from the industry and co-financiers at the same time). About 95% of the project co-financing is a contribution from industrial contractors. About 50% of the total budget of the project is financed by demands owners. The demands owners will play a significant role in the project, from discussing the new technologies that will be contributed and verified by VTI research team to construct pilot roads considering the solutions that the project will come up with.

Five construction contractors (namely SCA Skog AB, Kopparfors Skogar AB, Sveaskog Förvaltnings AB, Stora Enso Skog AB and Holmen Skog), involved in this project, will build five pilot roads (each of about 1 km long) and stand for all the costs required for the road’s construction, materials, working hours via in-kind and cash co-funding of this project. Many demands owners who have a need and benefit from the solutions and who can take care of manage, use, and disseminate the result of the project are also involved in the project, namely, Trafikverket Enskilda Vägar, Skogsstyrelsen, REV and Södra Skogägarna Ekonomisk Förening. They will contribute with their experience to the project and even co-fund the project.

Planerade arbetspaket och förväntade leveranser

The proposed project will be implemented in six work packages as described below:

1. Research and policy compilation.
2. Analysis and selection of best practice, innovations and technologies.
3. Construction and testing of large-scale pilot roads .
4. Economical and practical use assessment of the chosen solutions.
5. Following up and validation of the pilot roads after construction.
6. Documentation and results dissemination.

Sammanfattning av tilläggsaktivitet (maj-dec 2024)

The aim of the current project is to widely disseminate the project results in order to share experiences, encourage cooperation and contribute to a collective knowledge pool. Efficient forest road development is crucial for the sustainable growth of the Swedish forest industry, increasing its competitiveness and leadership in responsible forest management. The project partners emphasise the need for wide dissemination. Current project activities include the organisation of a full-day physical seminar, the launch of a dedicated website and the creation of YouTube films to document novel construction methods and promote wider outreach and international collaboration. The aim is to maximise the impact of the project by reaching diverse audiences, promoting innovation and contributing to sustainable forestry practices on a global scale. Delivery of these dissemination activities is planned before 31 December 2024.