Power line mats

[Gearbox]

We have a large power line going from some where in Canada to near where I live . A lot of the way is swamp thus all the mats . Today I was behind a load of new mats headed north . Looking at the ends of the mats I was thinking if I had sawed those cants I would not owned up to it . There were no 2 the same thickness and some were tapered from 10 or 12 to 8 to 10 across the ends .  We were going down the hiway at 60 so I couldn't check .

[irvi00]

We used to saw a lot of cants to be used as swamp mats. All kinds of different sizes. Whatever the log would square up. Up to them how they wove it together.

[thecfarm]

When I was cutting,'93-'96,I sold some hrmlock for mats. We call them swamp mats around here. Than I had my land logged back in '13 and they was using white maple.
This is a picture,New Portland,ME.



Than driving around,somewheres in Maine,I saw another sawmill doing the same thing. I could never found it again. And even if I did,I would probably not recognize it,because the one pictured,the mat business has really stopped. All these mats was for a power line expansion. They would lay them things down like they was throwing out candy at a small town parade.
There is a guy that comes into the store that works at the above sawmill. Only him and maybe a few others now.

[Gearbox]

This line is at least 150 miles long and then there is pipe line work to . Loads of mats going both ways every day . Just was surprised at the sawing quality . I wish they would make them out of Aspen we could use the market .

[sprucebunny]

I live on a dirt road that leads to a power line. They were working on it last month and brought in 10 truckloads of mats. I noticed they weren't sawn too even, too.

Last winter in Berlin, they had a long section of mats right off the road and going up a hill where they were replacing poles. Looks like a boardwalk and I've always loved boardwalks.

I'm happy to see the mats in use because some of my land is being logged this winter and the be$t use for the crummy red maple will be mats.

[bandmiller2]

Mats like pallets are made from the dregs of the mill. Are they worthwhile to cut for or is it just busy work when you have nothing better to do.?? Frank C.

[Magicman]

When sawing mats you get what the log gives you.  It ain't going to the county fair to be judged so quality matters little.

[WDH]

That Customersawyer is the Mat Sawing King.

[Grizzly]

I typically see 3 different styles of rig/swamp/crane/road mats. 2 of them won't tolerate sloppy milling the other 1 will. Or that is my learning from wanting to sell lumber to the makers of them. They also don't want spruce due to easy rotting.

We don't see this one in Canada much and sloppy milling seems to be acceptable. I saw alot of them along I94 on that powerline project.


 

Something very similar to this is what we see on many pipeline projects as well as drilling sites. They are layed down so they tie together. Some slick operators out there that can do it pretty quick.


 

This one I understand is used on more rugged settings where things are gonna get chewed up and spat out. Tracks grinding and such. The one maker of these I talked to was very fussy on what he wanted for wood and tolerances.


 

[JB Griffin]

The top ones in Grizzly's post is what I saw. As long as they have a flat spot on all 4.sides and within a half inch they don't care, they take a little rot and a lot of shake too so its a good way to get rid of pallet logs for almost tie prices.

[starmac]

A few years ago I accidently fell into a deal hauling mats to Florida. They were putting in a new pipeline, 400 miles of it and it had to be matted all the way.
The way I understood it, Florida has a law, that once a mat has been on the ground, it can not be moved and used again, something about transferring bugs, so they had to have mats to cover the entire 400 miles wide enough for the equipment to work on. Every mill for 300 miles were turning out mats and we were steady hauling them as fast as we could.
They were fairly uniform at least from the mill I was hauling out of, it seemed like.

[Resonator]

 I hauled mats on flatbed a few times, one place in Arkansas made them with what I think was 3" material turned on edge and rod-bolted together. I also saw where some power line companies used engineered plastic mats instead of wood. They were thinner, weighed less, and could fit more on a trailer load.

[ETSawyer]

We sawed a few loads of mat material. At the time
It was tie price for pallet grade logs. I believe it was 8 or 6x almost random width. First load they said was to nice and all they really wanted was a 2" face on most of the timber. Painful to send stuff that ugly but they were fine with it. Only shipped a few loads. I think it went to Maine

[JB Griffin]

What we sawed was 8x6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16etc. Biggest I cut was a gum 8x24x18, big son of a gun. Cut the side "lumber" 4in thick and cut 30 somethin 8 and 10 ft cants too.

[thecfarm]

Grizzly,I only have seen the ones in the first picture. And those are 8,I think,all bolted together too. I never seen the other two.

[sprucebunny]

Off Route 16 in Berlin last spring.

[Steve71]

New to the forum but been reading stuff on here for years

I started cutting mats last year when koppers put a quota on ties they paid a little less per bft but they were not near as strict they would take a lot of Wayne and I never had one called