Abstract: A water-draining stable mat is described, made up of tires of portions of tires. The roadway mat has several layers that are borne upon and conform to a substrate of peat, dirt, sand, clay or other soil material. One layer of a roadway mat of the invention is a layer of vehicle tires or toroidal elements of vehicle tires, laying side by side. Each tire touches at least two other tires but no more than four other tires. Contiguous tires are bound together using a toggle strap that straddles the side walls of contiguous tires. Another layer of the roadway mat is made up of cut pieces of vehicle tires called "chips". The layer of chips are applied so that the chips are in overlapping relationship to each other and so that the chips lie generally parallel to the substrate. The tire chips form water seepage channels thus allowing excess water to soak into the substrate. Another layer is a layer of topping. The topping comprises sand, gravel, dirt and/or other material commonly used in road building.