The Roads Scholar Program
The Roads Scholar Program is an educational certification series offered to County Commissioners, Road Foremen and Road Hands. It presents courses related to the technical aspects of maintaining roads and bridges in rural Oklahoma. The entire series consists of nine courses that total approximately 120 hours of instruction and laboratory experience. Those who complete all of the courses are certified as Road Scholars. The nine courses of the series are as follows:
COURSE 1 – Aggregate Road Maintenance - This one-day course covers the fundamentals of maintaining low volume, rural roads. Drainage, road cross sections, culvert installation, soil properties, grading methods, use of geo-synthetics and chip sealing are all discussed.
COURSE 2 - Excavation Safety - This one-day course makes students aware of the dangers inherent with trenching and excavation. This enables them to identify and predict hazards and to take corrective measures to control them. After completion of the class, students are qualified to be named a Trench Competent Person by their employer.
COURSE 3 - Testing for Soil Properties - This two-day course covers the tests used to test soils for their engineering properties. Sieve analysis, Atterburg limits, Proctors and nuclear density tests are discussed and demonstrated. Emphasis is placed on explaining how these tests can be used to improve the characteristics of soils.
COURSE 4 – Comprehensive MUTCD - This two-day course covers what is required to comply with Chapters II, V and VI of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and basic flagging procedures. The first day of the class familiarizes students with how traffic control signs should be installed on a permanent basis, low volume road traffic control and how to set up in temporary traffic control situations. The second day of the class addresses the fundamentals of flagging procedures in temporary traffic control situations. Students learn the theory of flagging operations in the classroom and then apply them in the field, under traffic, in a controlled environment. Students are proficient in the application of MUTCD Typical Applications 10 and 13 after completion of the course.
COURSE 5 & 8 - Surveying (Basic & Advanced ~ {4}four-days)
BASIC SURVEYING - This two-day course covers the fundamentals of surveying as they apply to road and bridge construction and maintenance. Horizontal measurement of distance and angles along with differential leveling are addressed in the classroom and in the field using surveying equipment. ADVANCED SURVEYING - This two-day course further develops on the skills learned in Course 5 and applies them to actual road and bridge plans in a field environment.
COURSE 6 - Equipment Maintenance - This one-day course covers the fundamentals of maintaining vehicles and construction equipment used in maintaining and constructing roads and bridges. Various management tools and test procedures used in equipment management are discussed.
COURSE 7 - Project Management - This two-day course goes into detail on the various management tools available to efficiently run road and bridge operations. Project management modeling methods and resource estimation methods are addressed. Students work on case studies using these methods in simulation of “real world” type projects.
COURSE 9 - Reading and Interpreting Plans for Road and Bridge Construction - This two-day course covers how to read and interpret plans used in the construction of road and bridge projects.
