Steel slag has the nature to hydrate and expand when in contact with non-reacting CaO and water, and thus can be used only in limited scope for landfill disposal as well as for recycling as civil construction aggregates. In order to use such steel slags more efficiently, the applicability of steel slag as sand mat alternative material was reviewed. In general, sand mat is used in soft ground surface reinforcement method and horizontal drain method, and is installed simultaneously with soft ground vertical drain method. Therefore in this study steel slag designing method and application standard etc were examined to recycle steel slag as sand mat alternative material, and laboratory soil test and model test were done. Test results indicated that the designing method and application standard meet various environment and quality standards, meaning that steel slag can be utilized as sand mat alternative material, and analysis of slag mat bearing capacity also indicated that use of steel slag produces double or more bearing capacity compared with existing sand mat.