High elastic stiffness
Maintains confinement and reinforced-layer stiffness under repeated logging, loader and stockpile loads.
Logging and forestry operations depend on reliable access between harvest areas, processing sites, storage yards and mills. These roads and working surfaces often cross remote, environmentally sensitive terrain while carrying loaded log trucks, harvest equipment, mobile loaders and concentrated timber stockpiles.
Ground conditions can change rapidly with rainfall, seasonal saturation and freeze-thaw cycles. A road or yard that performs in dry weather may rut, settle or become impassable when the subgrade weakens, disrupting harvesting, transport and mill production.
For forest owners, logging contractors and mill operators, surface performance affects harvest schedules, truck cycles, equipment wear, worker safety, production continuity and total lifecycle cost. Stabilization must be coordinated with project-specific drainage, culvert, slope and erosion-control design.
Neoloy® Tough-Cells provide 3D mechanical soil stabilization for forestry roads, log yards and working platforms. Installed over the prepared subgrade and filled with project-approved granular material, the cellular layer confines the infill and distributes loads over a wider area.
The reinforced layer increases stiffness and bearing capacity while limiting lateral movement, rutting and settlement. This allows engineers to improve difficult ground with less imported aggregate, shallower structural sections and reduced dependence on excavation or full subgrade replacement.
For logging and forestry infrastructure, Neoloy® Tough-Cells can help:
Neoloy® Tough-Cells are manufactured from Novel Polymeric Alloy – NPA, with engineering properties suited to repeated heavy loading, wet ground and long-term forestry infrastructure:
Maintains confinement and reinforced-layer stiffness under repeated logging, loader and stockpile loads.
Supports long-term dimensional stability and limits loss of confinement through seasonal loading and moisture changes.
Resists hoop stresses and lateral movement as loads are transferred through the confined infill.
Supports long-term use under water exposure, freeze-thaw cycles, temperature changes and demanding forest conditions.
Forms a stiff load-distribution layer over low-bearing soils while reducing thick fill sections and subgrade replacement.
Reduce structural infill requirements by up to approximately 70%, depending on the existing design and available materials.
Reduce aggregate and pavement thickness by more than 40% in suitable weak-soil applications.
Achieve up to 2–5x faster construction than traditional deep-fill or corduroy methods in difficult peat conditions.
Design reinforced roads and platforms for repeated forestry loads in the approximately 45–80 tonne range, subject to project engineering.
Limit lateral movement, differential settlement and surface deformation under repeated truck, loader and stockpile loading.
Maintain more reliable access across saturated ground, seasonal moisture changes and freeze-thaw conditions.
Forestry roads and yards may achieve approximately twice the service life of conventional sections, subject to design and maintenance.
Reduce repeated grading, gravel overlays, chronic rebuilding and closures caused by rutting and settlement.
Maintain truck, loader and processing access through wet periods to reduce downtime and production interruptions.
Smoother, more stable surfaces can reduce fuel consumption, tire damage, loader wear and parts replacement.
Rapid installation and reduced material volumes shorten construction windows in remote or weather-sensitive locations.
Use project-approved local sand, rounded gravel or lower-quality granular material that may otherwise be unsuitable as structural fill.
Lower aggregate demand by up to approximately 70%, reducing quarrying, hauling, fuel use and road-building emissions.
Reinforce weak ground in place and reduce excavation, soil disposal, borrow-pit demand and disturbance to the forest floor.
Avoid sacrificing timber for traditional corduroy-road construction where an engineered reinforced section is suitable.
Distribute traffic loads to limit root-zone compaction while maintaining porosity, drainage and permeable surface options.
A sawmill log yard in Fort St. John, British Columbia operated over saturated peat contaminated with mulch, with a CBR below 1% and a high water table. Heavy loaders, log trucks and six-metre timber stacks caused deep rutting and settlement, while freeze-thaw cycles further degraded the working surface.
The engineered solution used one Neoloy® Tough-Cells layer to improve the subgrade and a second layer to reinforce the gravel base. Local sand was used as infill, with geotextiles providing separation in the saturated conditions.
Project value delivered
View Canada Sawmill Log Yard Case Study
PRS supports forest owners, contractors, mills, engineers and public agencies with project evaluation, pavement optimization, material selection, value engineering, installation guidance and project-specific technical support.