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Design | Construction | Surfacing | Trailheads
More Trailbuilding Resources
Resources and Library:
Trailbuilding
Hosted
by AmericanTrails.org
Resources
for building trails and greenways:
design guidelines, construction techniques,
materials, trail paving and surfacing,
and trailhead signs and facilities.

- Optimizing trail grade: the key to creating sought-after trails by Randy Martin
- Guide to Sustainable Mountain
Trails: Trail
Assessment, Planning, and Design Sketchbook
- Trail Design Guidelines: Regional Trails, Natural Areas and Developed Parks, OR (pdf 7.4 mb)
- Two
new trail design books cover "how
to think" and "how to do
it"
- Building
Sustainable Trails: designing
sustainable contour trails
- Park
Guidelines for Off-Highway Vehicles covers OHV recreation area design
- Emerging Trends in Pocket Bike Parks (pdf of PowerPoint 2.7 mb)
- The How and Why of Trail
Construction on the Appalachian Trail
- Handbook
for Trail Design, Construction, and
Maintenance, North Country National
Scenic Trail
- Hiking Trail Design: Trailbuilders
tell us how they lay the groundwork
- Erosion
Control Strategies for New Trails by Martha S. Mitchell, Erosion
Control
- Equestrian Design Guidebook for Trails, Trailheads, and Campgrounds
- Designing
Shared-Use Trails to Include Equestrians, by Anne M. O'Dell (pdf 5.3mb)
- Shared-Use
Path Design (pdf 1 mb); from FHWA
- Designing
Sidewalks and Trails for Access
- Conservation
Ethics Guiding The Goethe Trail
- Trail
Design and Construction Standards from Northern Bonneville Shoreline
Trail (pdf 577 kb)
- Trail
Guide: Building multiuse trails and
bridges by Kyle Ryan
- Westchester
RiverWalk Design Guidelines (pdf
8.9mb)
- Guidelines
for Trail Development Within Montgomery
County, PA, 2005 (pdf 1.2 MB)
- Recreational
Trail Design and Construction from University of Minnesota Extension
- Wetland
trail development -- From THE TRAIL
FORUM
- Wetland
Trail Design and Construction:
Steinholz and Vachowski, 2001
- Four
Simple Tasks to Do Prior to Trail
Design by Jef Farland
- How
accessible recreation facilities benefit
everyone
- Back
Country Trail Design and Management
- How
to Build Challenging Mountain Bike
Trails: articles from International
Mountain Bicycling Association
- 10
Most Common Trailbuilding Mistakes
- Trail
Construction and Maintenance Notebook;
USFS




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