Overview

Our softwood access mats are engineered for use on wetlands, marshes, muskeg, forest floors, restoration sites, and other environmentally sensitive ground conditions. They provide a lighter, lower-impact alternative to traditional hardwood crane mats and are suitable for projects where soil preservation, mobility, and cost efficiency take priority over heavy-lift capacity.

Primary Advantages

Minimal Ground Disturbance

Designed to preserve topsoil, vegetation, and subgrade structure. Reduces rutting and erosion and lowers the cost of post-project remediation.

Lower Handling and Transport Cost

Softwood mats are significantly lighter than hardwood crane mats, enabling faster installation, easier repositioning, fewer trucking requirements, and reduced mobilization cost.

Suitable for Light and Medium Equipment

Appropriate for ATV/UTV traffic, light excavators, skid steers, service trucks, forestry machinery, and utility vehicles operating on soft or fragile terrain.

Rapid Deployment and Removal

Reduced weight improves handling efficiency. Crews can install and remove mats quickly, which benefits projects with short access windows, remote locations, or limited manpower.

Reusable and Modular Construction

Mats can be drilled and fitted with steel rods or cables for rigging, bundling, loading, and transport. This supports repeated reuse across multiple sites.

Applications

Wetlands and Environmentally Sensitive Areas

Temporary access paths, low-pressure equipment routes, staging pads, and ground-stabilization surfaces where soil integrity is critical.

Forestry and Back-Country Access

Short-term work platforms, logging paths, remote-camp access, and timber-harvest corridors requiring minimal disturbance to forest floors and root systems.

Utility, Pipeline, and Civil Work

Support for rubber-tired vehicles, light excavators, and service trucks; temporary roads; staging areas; and renewable-energy pad access. Appropriate when hardwood crane mats are unnecessary.

Restoration and Conservation Projects

Peatlands, marsh restoration, revegetation zones, and other ecologically constrained work areas requiring controlled ground pressure and reversible impact.

Operational Benefits

• Reduced soil compaction and surface deformation.

• Appropriate strength-to-weight ratio for non-crane applications.

• Lower logistics burden: more mats per load, lower fuel use, and reduced freight cost.

• Efficient for short-duration or rotating-site projects requiring repeated deployment.

• Suitable for greenfield sites, remote terrain, and areas without established access roads.

• Easier to maneuver in tight or variable terrain due to reduced mass.