Gravel Road Workshop

DATE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2025
TIME: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
LOCATION: UNITY COMMUNITY CENTER (MORNING) & WATERMAN LANE IN BURNHAM (AFTERNOON)

A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE WALDO COUNTY SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT & FRIENDS OF LAKE WINNECOOK

Workshop Details:

Join the Waldo County Soil & Water Conservation District and Friends of Lake Winnecook for a hands-on workshop focused on gravel road maintenance and water quality protection. This free, in-person training will take place on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, with morning classroom instruction followed by an afternoon field visit to a local road site on Waterman Lane.

Designed for landowners, contractors, town officials, and watershed groups, the workshop provides practical tools and guidance for evaluating and maintaining gravel roads. Proper road upkeep not only ensures safe access and helps avoid costly repairs—it’s also a critical strategy for protecting nearby lakes, streams, and wetlands from erosion and runoff.

Participants will:

  • Learn how road conditions impact water quality

  • Review road materials and common problem areas

  • Gain an introduction to culverts, geotextiles, material testing techniques, and available technical support resources

  • Explore best management practices (BMPs)

  • Participate in a site walk to apply what they've learned

Speakers:
Josh Platt, President, Maine Environmental Solutions LLC
Peter Coughlan, Director, Community Services Division, Maine DOT

Continuing Education Credit:
Participants certified in Erosion Control Practices by Maine DEP can earn Continuing Education Hours (CEH).

What to Expect:

DATE/TIME: Tuesday, August 26, 2025, 9 AM - 2 PM

LOCATION:
Morning location Unity Community Center (32 School St, Unity, ME)
Afternoon field session at Waterman Lane in Burnham

DETAILS:

  • Free Admission

  • Recommend bringing a bag lunch

  • Rain date: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Register Today!

Meet at Unity Community Center (9AM)

 

Site visit in the afternoon at Waterman Lane in Burnham

 

Workshop Speakers

Peter Coughlan will lead a session on Gravel Roads 101, covering the fundamentals of road construction and maintenance, the difference between grader operators and drivers, strategies for minimizing water quality impacts, and practical guidance on culverts, geotextiles, material testing, and available technical resources. Josh Platt will cover gravel road surveying, road plans, and maintenance for road associations.

  • Director of MaineDOT's Community Services Division (1996 to present)

    Director of Maine Local Roads Center (since 1987), which provides technical assistance and training to municipal personnel across Maine on a wide variety of local roads subjects such as paving, gravel roads, snow/ice control, traffic issues, bridges/culverts and many more; manages the Local Road Assistance Program (LRAP) which provides $30M to all towns and cities for upkeep of their local road system; manages all urban compact boundaries; and administers the public road inventory and functional classification records of all of Maine’s public roads.

    Municipal official in Randolph, ME wearing 6 “hats” plus holds 8 other municipal positions in Pittston, Farmingdale, West Gardiner, The Forks, and Alna. Father of 5 and is an amateur astronomer and has saved 2 gentleman’s lives with his donated bone marrow.

    Additional Details:

    Peter is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) for the State of Maine and has been with Maine DOT for 48 years. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a BS in Civil Engineering. In 2022 he was named Maine Section ASCE ‘Engineer of the Year.’ He’s been a Board member of Maine Chapter APWA for 32 years.

  • Founder, Maine Environmental Solutions

    Josh Platt is the founder of Maine Environmental Solutions and has been working as a leader in the environmental field for over a decade.

    Years of field experience and an understanding of the Maine physical and political landscape, lend Josh the ability to provide customers with tailored solutions to both complex and simple environmental issues. Josh has worked with hundreds of landowners around the state providing a wide variety of services from assisting the small landowner with drainage issues to providing Third Party Inspection services for large-scale construction projects and Environmental Assessment for major land transactions.

    Josh received his Bachelor of Science from the School of Natural Resources & Forestry at the University of Maine, Orono.  He spent 10 years as a Project Manager and Watershed Project Field Staff for the Kennebec County Soil & Water Conservation District providing technical assistance, education and training to landowners, school groups, lake associations, contractors and municipalities throughout Kennebec County.  Josh has partnered with DEP’s Non-Point Source Training & Resource Center on many occasions to present on a variety of erosion control topics and is a DEP Certified Contractor who serves as an evaluator for the program.