HDPE Ground Protection Mats: Why Should You Invest to Protect Ground Surface

High-density polyethylene ground protection mats, or simply HDPE, provide a variety of benefits including making temporary roads, protecting lawns, maximizing traction, and reducing the risk of slips or falls!

However, keep in mind that while HDPE ground protection mats are cost-effective, durable options, they are sensitive to cracking, deformation, and breakage if you exceed their working load limits. You also need the right size of ground protection so your work area can be entirely covered. If you’re planning to use temporary roadway mats on your worksite, keep these considerations in mind: know the weight of your equipment, the size of the workspace, and the weather conditions you plan to work in.

Why Choose HDPE Ground Protection Mats?

HDPE ground protection mats are perfect for handling heavy-duty equipment as they are chemical and oil resistant, and their flexibility easily allows you to drive over uneven terrain! They’re especially helpful when working in challenging settings; to ensure the safety of you and your equipment, you want to make sure you have a stable and solid working surface. 

Additionally, they are called lawn protection mats because they are designed to, well, protect lawns! Keeping tire tracks off yards can prevent unhappy clients and keep your vehicle’s wheels or machinery clean from mud, dirt, and grass! Just set the temporary roadway mat down on the lawn before you drive your vehicle over it.

HDPE Grounding Mats Sizes and Working Load Limits

HDPE ground protection mats come in a variety of sizes and working load limits – you must know the exact size of ground mats for equipment mats for temporary roads that you purchase. While purchasing a ground mat for equipment that is a size too small or too large can seem like a minor inconvenience, it’s still money wasted and a project delayed as you need to go back and purchase the RIGHT size.

You will find most ground protection comes in sizes ranging from 2’, 3’, or 4’ in width, but almost always 8’ in length. However, some companies will make custom heavy-duty ground mats for equipment mats. If you ever find yourself needing bigger ground protection mats or mats that are cut to fit a unique or oddly-shaped surface, consider getting a custom ground mat for heavy equipment!

The thickness of HDPE ground protection mats also influences their WLL, which usually ranges from 60 to 120 tons! Knowing the weight of your heavy-duty equipment will help you purchase the right thickness for your lawn protection mats. If you choose mats too weak, you risk damaging your ground protection and thus potentially damaging your machinery or the work surface!

Application of HDPE Ground Protection Mats

Public Utilities and Power Industry

Ground mats for heavy equipment can be used by public utility services and electricity providers, like linemen, to provide a safe and even working environment. These industries use an array of heavy equipment, including pole setters, directional drillers, and bucket trucks, that can be tricky to navigate through uneven terrain. Ground protection mats are durable enough to support these heavy-duty machines and provide easy access to hard-to-reach locations. Additionally, you can purchase non-conductive HDPE ground protection mats! This material prevents cross-contamination from heavy machinery and does not conduct electricity, making them ideal for power and utility companies.

Construction Sites and Landscaping

Parking and storing material at your construction site or landscaping project can be a very convenient, time-saving option! However, you could risk damaging your equipment and getting wheels stuck in mud or snow. Rather than letting unpredictable weather conditions delay your outdoor projects, let temporary roadway mats ease your worries! Mats can be laid down to create large parking or staging area for your crew and vehicles delivering or storing materials, and their long lifespan allow you to keep these areas in place for months without worrying about prolonged damages to the mats (as long as you don’t exceed their working load limits). Additionally, these mats can create walkways for your crew which decreases the risk of injuries from slipping in mud or wet weather!

Grass Protection

Protecting the environment around your worksite is an important consideration you need to consider before driving your heavy-duty equipment over terrain. These durable mats range in thickness and therefore differing WLL, but they will be able to withstand up to at least 60 tons of pressure without damaging the ground underneath. You won’t have to worry about tire tracks, kicking up dirt, or risk getting stuck in the mud and upsetting your clientele. These mats will leave the ground as smooth as you left it, even in soft or wet conditions!

Oil and Gas Projects

Projects in the oil and gas industry tend to get very messy and difficult to navigate. On top of that, a lot of oilfields and pipelines are located on beautiful farmlands, which makes the creation of a permanent roadway complicated, if not impossible. Heavy duty ground protection mats help solve this problem! Using ground mats for heavy equipment, you can create temporary roadways that will not damage the environment, and their interlocking properties allow you to make the road as wide as you need! The unstable ground can cause delays and risk of injuries, especially on oilfields. These ground protection mats are an excellent solution, providing traction and remaining in place no matter how messy the worksite becomes. Create your safe worksite while keeping the local environment safe with HDPE ground protection mats!

Traction Support

Trying to haul a heavy-duty vehicle or machinery uphill, especially in soft terrain or wet conditions, can put added stress on your machinery and the crew. These temporary roadway mats provide the traction needed to haul vehicles up hills, over uneven terrain, and through unfavorable weather conditions. It’s the best way to help machines drive through areas that would be impossible, otherwise. They are non-slip, which means that once you’ve properly and safely put your vehicle into park on top of the heavy-duty ground protection mats, it will not slip or slide off the mat like it might in grass or dirt.

It’s also terrific for foot traffic, making a safe pathway through or around a worksite. Don’t worry about crew slipping and injuring themselves on-site; provide a safe, easy, and lightweight pathway for them to navigate!

Disaster Relief

In the wake of natural disasters like hurricanes or tornados, having a safe location set up for emergency personnel to assist those who need help is incredibly important. But, you also need to ensure the safety of the vehicles hauling life-saving supplies as well as their drivers through these dangerous situations – ground mats for equipment are the perfect solution. Able to withstand extreme weather conditions, lawn protection mats are fantastic, lightweight options for making temporary medical and supply camps for areas hit by disasters.

Military Applications

In a similar fashion to their applications in disaster relief efforts, heavy-duty ground protection mats are great for helping military personnel set up temporary camps or in getting supplies to soldiers through the uneven territory, like sandy deserts. Temporary roadway mats provide an easy path to soldiers, eliminating the risk of getting vehicles stuck in sandy or muddy areas. This allows soldiers to get much-needed supplies when they need them, without any delay!

While a lot of consideration goes into the purchasing of ground mats for equipment, finding the right mat for you depends on several different factors! The type of equipment you use, what you will need ground protection for, and the location and weather conditions of the worksite will help you determine the best size, and many companies offer competitive prices! When you’ve found the right ground mats for equipment mats for temporary roads, you can perform your job in a safe and convenient environment!