Historically, the use of inherently durable tropical hardwoods or the application of toxic chemicals to non-durable wood have provided partial solutions to the problem of durability for exterior applications.

However, using up the world’s precious resources of tropical hardwoods is hardly ideal and as for some treatments, the wood’s dimensional stability is not improved and toxins create a disposal problem. Fortunately, an alternative exists which is sourced from sustainable forests, has zero toxicity and provides dimensional stability and durability.

Accoya® wood is the world’s leading acetylated wood solution with properties that match those of the best tropical hardwoods. Accoya® is manufactured using a proprietary acetylation process and uses fast growing timber from sustainable sources. It may seem too good to be true but Accoya® is proven and available from Corell Timber.

In fact, Accoya® wood can be used to replace traditional construction materials such as steel. It was used for a unique heavy traffic road bridge at Sneek in the Netherlands. The bridge, measuring 20 metres high by 40 metres long has a cycle lane and two traffic lanes for road traffic up to 65 tonnes. Accoya® was laminated into large sections measuring 1080 x 1400 mm to create this innovative structure. The first bridge was craned into position in December 2008 and the second bridge was completed in 2010.