Mountain bike trails and infrastructure, Glentress Forest
Get in touch
Summary
Civil engineering for world championships sports facilities
Robertson delivered civil engineering works that readied Glentress Forest for the mountain bike XC and Marathon events – part of the UCI Cycling World Championships in August 2023. This special multi-disciplinary championship held in Scotland will host hundreds of athletes and thousands of visitors from across the world.
Located in the picturesque Scottish Borders, Glentress Forest welcomes 300,000 visitors each year.
To deliver key aspects of the Glentress Masterplan for these events, we designed and created new competition-quality mountain bike trails, on-site infrastructure improvements and world-class visitor facilities, to provide an integrated, accessible visitor experience for Forestry & Land Scotland.
3
Phases
9.5km
New mountain bike trails
300,000
Visitors per year
Designing and constructing world-class infrastructure
Robertson designed and constructed the ‘Activity Areas’ work packages for the Glentress Forest Masterplan. Phase 1, in 2022, involved building an initial 3km ‘taster trail’ with new car parking with barrier and payment system creates the required capacity and facilities.
Phase 2 of the project, carried out between August 2022 and May 2023, saw the installation of a further 4.5km of mountain bike trails and 2km of multi-use path to connect to the existing network along with five reinforced earth structures. The trails lead into these tunnel-like features as well as allowing visitors to cross the multi-use paths over the top.
Sustainably blending with the landscape
We created three ‘feature’ bridges with a focus on sustainable construction. To minimise disturbance to the local area, the structures were formed from a vegetated wall system, designed with 120-year design life. Using mechanically stabilised earth techniques, along with geotextile technology, the combination of non-woven bags, geogrid and interlocking plates created each structure. This method of construction generated 97% less greenhouse gases when compared to the standard concrete alternative. Once hydroseeded, it grows to a grassy embankment, sympathetically blending with the forest.
Route to market
The works were awarded through The Procurement Hub Major Projects 1 and Major Projects 2 Frameworks. Robertson is the contractor of choice for this quick, compliant and flexible route to market in Scotland, working in partnership with the public sector.
