2020

The Peating Method is Used in the Construction of a Forest Road

When carrying out forest road design and construction works, employees of JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) unit LVM Forest Infrastructure, together with industry professionals, often face unexpected challenges. In LVM Zemgale region, when building a road on a peat layer, it was decided to return to the techniques used by our ancestors and apply the peating method.

During the design of the Lambārte bog road, it was found that a 280-metre-long section of the road had a layer of peat not exceeding 1.8 metres in thickness. To ensure an adequate road bearing capacity, the peat layer should be dug up and replaced with mineral soil, or some other technique that improves the quality of the road should be used.

The forest road designer offered to cover the peat layer with straw excavated from the road track on the construction site, covering the layer of straw with a 20 cm layer of peat.

“In the construction of forest roads, peating is a long-known method - it means that inverted stumps and small-log decks are covered with peat. It is a challenging method to implement, but much more economical than replacing the peat layer with mineral soil. Moreover, it can only be used on roads with relatively low average traffic intensity,” tells Indris Stulpāns, Executive Director LVM Forest Infrastructure.

It is planned to construct a log deck on the peated structure, which will be covered with sand and crushed gravel. The area of logs will be 3574 m2.