The concept and application of best management practices (BMPs) for low-volume roads projects were studied. BMPs are techniques or design practices that will prevent or reduce nonpoint pollution, maintain water quality, and help produce well-built roads. A Low-Volume Roads Engineering Best Management Practices Field Guide was developed to address those key practices. Roads that are not well planned or located, not properly designed or constructed, not well drained, not well maintained, or not made with durable materials often produce negative impacts, most of which are preventable with good engineering and road management practices. A number of key practices and design techniques can be used to prevent adverse impacts on roads. First a road must serve the needs of the user through good transportation system planning. Long-term cost-effectiveness and minimized impacts are then achieved through application of good design and maintenance practices, including a road location that avoids problematic areas such as slides or springs; positive surface drainage; adequately sized and appropriate drainage crossing structures; stable cut and fill slopes; use of erosion control measures; roadway surface stabilization; and materials source development with subsequent site reclamation.

A forest roads manual is being written to aid the Brazilian Forest Service in its tropical forestry operations and timber sale concessions in the Amazon basin. The objective of the manual is to develop standards, guidelines, and operational information that will help forest road operations meet best management practices. The manual includes information on transportation planning in conjunction with strategic and tactical timber sale planning; road design; road drainage considerations; roadway materials use; slope stabilization issues; road maintenance issues; and environmental issues, including water quality protection, erosion control, and pollution management. Discussion of each of these typical transportation system planning and design issues considers the unique circumstances and resources found in the Amazon basin. This project grew from the involvement of the Office of International Programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and the newly created Brazilian Forest Service in the process of helping the new agency manage its large long-term logging concessions throughout the Amazon basin through use of prudent, sustainable management practices. Forest road design and operation are significant parts of overall forest management and major cost items. The manual development is based on many training courses that have been held over the past 10 years across the Amazon basin in the states of Pará, Acre, and Rondonia. In addition, many courses have been conducted and lessons learned in portions of the upper Amazon basin of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. This paper discusses the development of the Amazon Basin Forest Roads Manual and presents an overview of its content as well as many of the unique aspects of building roads in Amazon basin forests.