Cycling Through the Trees: 350 Helical Piles for an Elevated Forest Route

“Fietsen door de Bomen” (Cycling Through the Trees) is a unique elevated cycling route in Belgium’s Limburg province. The structure lets cyclists ride through the forest canopy, rising to 10 metres above the ground and offering a one-of-a-kind experience surrounded by nature. It has become one of the country’s most visited cycling attractions.

The main challenge was creating stable foundations while protecting the forest ecosystem. Excavation, concrete and heavy machinery would have damaged tree roots, compacted the soil and altered the natural drainage. For a project built to celebrate its surroundings, that was not an option. The foundation solution had to provide strong support without extensive disturbance or long on-site work phases.

Paalupiste, together with Soiltek, its official representative in Belgium, delivered a helical pile solution tailored to the project. Paalupiste’s design team engineered custom helical piles to match the structure’s requirements and the site constraints. Soiltek then installed approximately 350 custom helical piles in just a couple of days, quickly and with minimal disruption to the forest.

The mixed forest soil varied across the site, so pile lengths and configurations were adjusted to ensure consistent bearing capacity throughout. Each pile was screwed directly into the forest floor, positioned precisely to avoid existing tree roots. No excavation, no concrete, no spoil to remove.

The result is a durable foundation for one of the most iconic cycling structures in the region. The project demonstrates how helical piles can combine fast installation, strong performance and low site impact in environmentally sensitive locations.