Tired of the cost of procuring traditional bolted mats for your remote worksites as well as dealing with the risk of sudden breakages due to heavy loads? It’s time for a change! While timber mats once were the main player when it came to site access solutions, today’s market features several new and improved options, including the latest frontrunner: Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) mats. Designed to be significantly lighter and to perform better than their predecessors, CLT mats have quickly made a name for themselves as the preferred choice amongst industry leaders, particularly amongst those in the power and pipeline sectors in North America. Learn more about why you should consider making the switch to CLT mats for your next project below.

Why It’s Time For An Update

There’s no denying that, for many years, bolted mats played a key role in helping solve the many site access challenges faced by projects located in remote regions of the Canadian landscape. As technology has progressed, however, advanced methods like those used in the creation of cross-laminated timber have been able to step in and address the areas where traditional mats have been lacking. One of the chief improvements can be found directly in the composition of the mats themselves; while standard timber mats are produced using a mixture of hard and softwoods that can often result in unpredictable results, CLT mats produced by leaders like Sterling Solutions are crafted from high quality southern yellow pine that helps to prevent breaks at stress points and, combined with the design of the mat overall, handle heavy loads with ease.

Due to their unique composition, CLT mats are up to 40% lighter than traditional counterparts, and as a result, allow for the hauling of up to 25% more mats per load. This saves you time, money, and allows you to get up to speed fast!

Go Beneath The Surface

With a process originally discovered in the 1990s, today’s CLT mats are the product of a unique design and build that lends itself to long-lasting performance. Unlike traditional bolted mats which are created using a mix of wood fibres and steel bolts to create fixed points, cross-laminated timber mats are made by bonding alternating perpendicular layers of wood together with an environmentally safe adhesive to help keep the mat strong, as well as protected from outside factors like moisture. The end result is a mat that is flexible and resistant to heavy loads, no matter your application. Core benefits of CLT mats include:

• Life cycle that is 3-5 the length of traditional mats
• Easy installation
• Can haul more mats per transport load
• High impact resistance, and more

CLT Access Mat Solutions At GFI

As Western Canada’s leading source for access mat solutions, GFI is proud to partner with Sterling Solutions‘ as a distributor for their range of TerraLam® products, including the 300 and 500 series access mats, access bridges, and more. Learn more by contacting our team today.