Bog mats and potential damage to grazing by vehicle

[HHHhh]

I have an electricity company wanting to replace a generator on their poles in my field. They are wanting to do this in January / February when my field will be wet..... They say they will use bog mats to protect my field. Does anyone know whether this will really stop any damage?
The poles are quite a way from the field gateway across the part of the field my horse will be grazing then & I am pretty cross they want to do it in the winter. When they replaced the poles in May time a couple of years ago they left parts around the pole as just soil ( it was grass ) and of course the weeds grew.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Why not ask them to reschedule the works to take place at a more suitable time of the year, as agricultural land will recover better in early summer.

 

[paddy555]

I have an electricity company wanting to replace a generator on their poles in my field. They are wanting to do this in January / February when my field will be wet..... They say they will use bog mats to protect my field. Does anyone know whether this will really stop any damage?
The poles are quite a way from the field gateway across the part of the field my horse will be grazing then & I am pretty cross they want to do it in the winter. When they replaced the poles in May time a couple of years ago they left parts around the pole as just soil ( it was grass ) and of course the weeds grew.

I had exactly the same. They couldn’t reschedule far far too complex in the scheme of their work. The pole was a fair way down a river meadow so it would do damage. I told them no vehicles. They accepted this and carried the generator, fittings,winches in by hand.They had a team of workers I think from the Philipines or similar and they made nothing of it. Laughing and joking all the way. I apologized they couldn’t drive in but it didn’t worry them at all. It was very successful.

 

[Bellaboo18]

Definitely ask if they will reschedule, if they want to do it in Jan/Feb, it's not emergency works. They need to replace like for like so as a minimum if it's currently grass, they need to put seed down for you.

 

[PurBee]

Bog mats spread the load so can take vehicle weight well, rather than a line of deep ruts from tyres.
It depends on soil conditions/grass root thickness as to how much the mats mark the surface. Due to vehicle weight spread on the mats, it shouldnt be deeper than horses hooves, in worse conditions. You can only really assess better at the time.

We have literal black peat bog land sections of our land and it is amazing even with that, how putting down long poles to drive over stops sinking and doesnt ruin the surface. We’ve been stuck in irish bogs with vehicles, literally, many times, once with a 5 tonne laden trailer of cut peat on a bog hill of 45 degrees! (We didnt realise the hill was bog too!) and we only got it out by using mats to spread the tyre load and a winch.

The army uses similar in boggy conditions - we used bog mat ideas to create ‘floating stone’ paths where needed here. Now a 12 tonne load can drive across the bog.
Bog mats are ace

 

[HHHhh]

Thanks for the responses - I will try to reschedule.

 

[MNMyShiningStars]

We had similar, but they didnt use the mats, and got 2 of their vehicles stuck on the muddy hill. We were left with deep tyre marks across our summer field which they didn't do anything to repair. If it were me I would do my best to reschedule.