To enable the Japanese forestry industry to recover, it is important to promote high-performance forestry mechanization based on high-density forest-road networks. We studied the optimum compaction for banking a skidding road using a hydraulic shovel to establish a construction technique for simple, high-durability roads for forestry. The study site was in the northeast of mainland Japan. The geology was Neogene; the soil was cohesive, sandy, and gravelly. Compaction was evaluated using 7- and 13-ton hydraulic shovels. The optimum compaction time using the crawler of the hydraulic shovel was approximately 5 one-way cycles, regardless of the machine. Although we are aware that over-compaction can occur with cohesive soil, we determined the optimum compaction time for the machine type and soil properties.

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