Manager, Highways and Bridges

The Yukon Department of Highways and Public Works operates a series of gravel airstrips in isolated parts of the Yukon. In addition to the primary function of providing services to general aviation, these isolated airstrips support medical emergency evacuations and act as temporary bases for forest fire fighting aircraft and equipment. The Department has well-established bridge inspection / management, pavement and bituminous surface treatment management systems for its highway network and a pavement management system for its major airports. Lacking however was an inspection and rating system for its gravel airstrips. This paper describes the establishment of a rating system for these low volume gravel airstrips. It identifies the distresses that should be monitored during an annual inspection. A number of composite indices were developed similar to the PCI used for pavement management, for use with the gravel airstrips. Due to the variation of gravel surfaces depending on weather and the last gravel blading, a general condition index based on the overall visual observation of the airstrip was judged to be more effective than composite indices based on individua