Capita helps design mountain bike trails

Consultant Capita Symonds’ countryside management team has been appointed to design and build two new mountain bike trails in Devon.

Working in partnership with world renowned mountain bike trail designer Phil Saxena of Architrail, and specialist bike trail builder Dinsdale Moorland Services, a team from the Carlisle office will be developing the projects which are being delivered as part of the 1SW off-road cycling project which aims to develop a branded regional mountain biking destination in the South West for a wide range of mountain bike users.

The first project will see the partnership plan, design and build of a ‘skills park’ and a ‘pump trail’ at the Forestry Commission’s Haldon Forest Park Visitor Centre nearExeter.

The new skills park will provide a teaching and learning facility for all abilities of users and will encompass a variety of graded trail features including drop offs, berms, germs, northshore, skinnies and an innovative balance zone.

The pump trail will include a series of rollers, tabletops, big berms and double jumps which will teach rider speed control or simply allow a fun experience at the beginning or end of a ride.

The second new project will deliver an off-road cycling site and trail assessment for the National Trust’s Plymbridge Valley site on the outskirts of Plymouth. The project will involve the design of approximately 16km of new red and blue trail in the sensitive landscape as well as a further skills park, pump track and specialist skill zones along the trail.

Capita is also working with Architrail and Dinsdale on a project in North Somerset - an off-road cycling development plan for Bristol City Council’s historic Ashton Court Estate and the Forestry Commission’s Leigh Woods.

The team is overcoming some major ecological and landscape barriers on the site including SSSI, Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Graded Landscape designations to plan, design and re-design over 12km of red and blue graded trails and a skills park. The new facilities, which have just been granted planning permission, are expected to host over 80,000 visitors in the first year alone and should open in Autumn 2011.