When a plant or a warehouse rebuilds a yard, the price is only half the question. The other half is how long the gate stays shut. Every day a yard is closed, trucks queue outside, loading moves to another bay, or the work waits for a shutdown.
So the second question we hear from plant managers, after the cost, is: when can traffic use it? Here is the answer for each of the six GridMats systems, and how to plan the work around a running site.
When each system opens
| System | Opens to traffic | Why |
|---|---|---|
| S1 cement-treated gravel | Light traffic at 3 days; trucks at 7, once the 7-day cubes reach 2 MPa | Only the 40 mm layer in the grid carries cement (4–6%), moist-cured for 3 days |
| S2 stone chip | The same day | Nothing to cure: the chips are plate-compacted into the cells |
| S3 grass and soil | Feet at once; vehicles once the grass is 60 mm and rooted, in 4–6 weeks | The roots need time to establish |
| S4 honeycomb-finish concrete | Traffic after 7 days of curing, full traffic at 14 days, full load at 28 days | Concrete gains strength as it cures |
| S5 grid under asphalt | As your asphalt programme always does | The grid sits in the base; it adds one shift per 1,000 m² |
| S6 temporary mats | The same day; lifted after the job | Top-covered mats on levelled ground, no infill or curing |
A jointed concrete road, by comparison, usually stays closed for weeks while it cures, for the period the specification sets.
Building around a running yard
- Work in bays. The grid goes down one bay at a time, so part of the yard stays in use while the next part is built. Plan the bays around the gates and the loading docks.
- Count the crew-days. A trained crew lays 300–400 m² of grid a day on S1, S2 and S3. A 10,000 m² yard is about 25–33 crew-days of grid laying; two crews working together halve the calendar. The base work comes before that and is the same as for any road.
- Choose by how long a bay can stay shut. If a bay can close for a week, S1 gives a hard, dust-free grey surface. If it must reopen the same day, S2 does it, and the rain is managed below the surface. Where only a night or a weekend is available, temporary S6 mats can carry traffic around the work.
- Agree the strength check. On S1, trucks go on at 7 days only once the 7-day cubes reach 2 MPa. Cast the cubes on the day of the work and book the test in advance.
In service
At RINAC, Mumbai, a cold-storage truck yard was rebuilt in S1, on OC-LW 40 with 6% cement, during a shutdown window: light traffic at three days and trucks at seven. It has been in daily use under reefer trucks since 2025.
At Reliance Industries in the Rann of Kutch, an S2 stone-chip access road across saline flats opened to traffic the day it was filled (2025).
What it means for your project
- A shutdown window of a week or more: S1 for trucks.
- No closure at all: S2, built bay by bay and reopened the same day.
- Asphalt required by the contract: S5, on your contractor's normal programme.
- A concrete finish required: S4, with full load at 28 days.
- Access for the duration of the works: S6, lifted and reused on the next site.
Every GridMats system is built by teams we train: we train your contractor's execution team and give our SOP and installation guide, on site for orders of 2,000 m² or more.
Plan your closure with us
Tell us the area, the traffic and how long each part of the yard can be closed. Ask for your free estimate: our engineers follow with the design, the bill of quantities and the cost comparison against your conventional section, and the supply date is confirmed with the PO.