The purpose of this manual is to provide clear and helpful information for maintaining gravel roads. Very little technical help is available to small agencies that are responsible for managing these roads. Gravel road maintenance has traditionally been "more of an art than a science" and very few formal standards exist. This manual contains guidelines to help answer the questions that arise concerning gravel road maintenance such as: What is enough surface crown? What is too much? What causes corrugation? The information is as nontechnical as possible without sacrificing clear guidelines and instructions on how to do the job right.

The first part of the Manual introduces the main steps of forest road network planning and gives guidance on road construction under different site conditions. It demonstrates good practices to minimize the area used for building purposes, to keep the environmental impact as low as possible and to maintain forest productivity. It describes the machinery suitable for the different construction phases and compares the advantages of machine types. The second part of the Manual introduces the goals and best practices of regular forest road maintenance which is a key operation that enables multi-purpose use of forests. It gives an overview on the main causes of forest road degradation and explains the different maintenance regimes and maintenance activities.