and lowered the mat into place. It took
about one hour to place these mats.
Since the all-terrain forklift could not
be used to deliver the last four mats, a
new method using the HEMTT was
tried. The mats were arranged in two
rows of two mats each. The mats in the
rows were overlapped by one foot and
attached together. The HEMTT then
pulled the mats up the slope close to
their final location. Then the HEMTT
winched each set of two mats into their
final position.
On the wooded trail, the tire mats
were delivered to the north end of the
wooded trail in 5-ton dump trucks. The
HEMTT was then used to place the
Figure 4. Placing Uni-Mats in wet site.
mats. First, the mats were laid end-to-
end with 0.3 m (1 ft) of the second mat
lying on top of the first, etc., until eight
mats were laid out. The mats were then
fastened together. Plans were to drag
the mats in a manner similar to that
used on the sloped trail. This method
failed because the chain on one of the
mats broke. The mats were then ar-
ranged in a stack of four and carried/
dragged by the HEMTT (Fig. 5) to the
test section where they were placed
close to their desired position. Each
mat was then picked up individually
and placed in position.
On the pentagonal loop trail, the tire
mats were delivered on a lowboy, off-
loaded, and placed with a bucket
Figure 5. Placing tire mats onto wooded trail section.
loader with teeth. The test section
shape was then modified to "round"
the corners. A D7 bulldozer was used to move the
ing area to the test section--a distance of approxi-
mats into their new position.
mately 120 m (400 ft).
Tire mats
PVC fascine mats
Tire mats were provided by Terra Mat. The
A fascine is a series of parallel pipes placed
mats were 1.6 m (5.25 ft) wide by 3.2 m (10.5 ft)
to fill a ditch that allows traffic to travel across
long and weighed approximately 1000 kg (2200
(Fig. 6a). In contrast to a typical military fascine,
lb) each. There was a lifting chain at each end.
the fascine mats used for this demonstration
The mats were placed along the wheel tracks.
project were constructed of materials similar to
On the sloped trail, the first six tire mats were
those used by the USFS (Mason 1990), e.g., 6-m-
moved to the test section using an all terrain fork-
(20-ft-) long schedule 80 PVC pipe, 1.6 cm (5/8
lift. The mats could not be placed using the fork-
in.) steel cable and cable clamps. Two 4.6-m-
lift because its brakes were not adequate on the
(15-ft-) long by 4.9-m- (16-ft-) wide fascines were
steep grade. The bucket loader was used to place
constructed.
these mats. One end of the tire mat was attached
The fascine was used in two locations on the
to the bucket and lifted from the stack. The loader
wooded trail. The first location was at a bend in
then placed the lower end of the mat on the ground
the trail where the tank had thrown a track just
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