§ 784.37 - What information must I provide concerning access and haul roads?

§ 784.37 What information must I provide concerning access and haul roads?

(a) Design and other application requirements.

(1) You, the applicant, must submit a map showing the location of all roads that you intend to construct or use within the proposed permit area, together with plans and drawings for each road to be constructed, used, or maintained within the proposed permit area.

(2) You must include appropriate cross-sections, design drawings, and specifications for road widths, gradients, surfacing materials, cuts, fill embankments, culverts, bridges, drainage ditches, drainage structures, and fords and low-water crossings of perennial and intermittent streams.

(3) You must demonstrate how all proposed roads will comply with the applicable requirements of §§ 784.28, 817.150, and 817.151 of this chapter.

(4) You must identify -

(i) Each road that you propose to locate in or within 100 feet, measured horizontally on a line perpendicular to the stream, beginning at the ordinary high water mark of a perennial or intermittent stream.

(ii) Each proposed ford of a perennial or intermittent stream that you plan to use as a temporary route during road construction.

(iii) Any plans to alter or relocate a natural stream channel.

(iv) Each proposed low-water crossing of a perennial or intermittent stream channel.

(5) You must explain why the roads, fords, and stream crossings identified in paragraph (a)(4) of this section are necessary and how they comply with the applicable requirements of § 784.28 of this part and §§ 817.150 and 817.151 of this chapter.

(6) You must describe the plans to remove and reclaim each road that would not be retained as part of the postmining land use, and provide a schedule for removal and reclamation.

(b) Primary road certification. The plans and drawings for each primary road must be prepared by, or under the direction of, and certified by a qualified registered professional engineer, or in any state that authorizes land surveyors to certify the design of primary roads, a qualified registered professional land surveyor, with experience in the design and construction of roads, as meeting the requirements of this chapter; current, prudent engineering practices; and any design criteria established by the regulatory authority.

(c) Standard design plans. The regulatory authority may establish engineering design standards for primary roads through the regulatory program approval process, in lieu of engineering tests, to establish compliance with the minimum static safety factor of 1.3 for all embankments specified in § 817.151(c) of this chapter.