National Trail Surfaces Study

Limitations

The study is limited in scope by the following:

• Ability to generalize findings to trails in other locations with the same surfaces applied. Surfaces installed in other locations vary in terms of design parameters, frequency and type of use, site conditions, weather and climate;

• The sections of installed trail surface materials see different uses and frequency at Bradford Woods. Higher visitor usage, and varying types of usage, can affect the surface material;

• Not all soil stabilizers were able to be installed at the chosen site location due to soil/aggregate incompatibility thus limiting the ability to test a wider variety of surfaces which would contribute to a larger data set for comparison;

• Climate, adverse weather conditions, seasonal changes, and precipitation may affect trail surface materials; those differences in other locations cannot be accounted for with this study;

• Surfaces needed to be maintained and were maintained in order to ensure their safe usage for the daily operation of Bradford Woods.