Trail Construction
Sustainable Trails' construction crews rise to the challenge of providing the best possible user experience, employing tried and true techniques while applying their world wide experience, resulting in a sustainable and safe trail network.
Our crews are able to modify the engineering principals of trail construction developed by such organizations as the International Mountain Bicycling Association and the Professional Trail Builders Association, using their years of trail experience to adapt these methods to the site conditions.
It is important for us to produce a product of the highest quality, exhibiting sustainable qualities that may be considered ready for use immediately after our crews complete the finishing work. Therefore we are staunch advocates for compacting the trail tread with our compactor attached to the front of our mini walk behind loader. We believe in compacting all of our trail work.
The following forms of contracts are frequently used:
Design Build: – We frequently make use of this form of contracting. The landowner is given with a complete package including the planning, design, layout and construction of the trail system.
Benefits of this form of contracting are the following:
- reduced costs - the design and construction are in one package
- most flexible - the landowner is dealing with one supplier of the design and construction
Lump Sum: - where a tender is submitted for the work outlined in the specifications provided.
Unit Price Contract:
In this form of contract the project costs are broken down into their smallest increments – for example the cost to bench cut one meter of trail tread. This method is usually employed when the parameters of the project can not be defined prior to the design and construction phase.
“Hybrid” Contracting:
Our firm suggests that this form of contract be used when it is desirable for the community at large to be involved in the trail project. This encourages the public to have strong ties to the trail system since they have an investment in their “sweat equity.” This results in reduced user conflicts and lower maintenance. Our firm donates the use of up to 50 hand tools to aide the community work force.
