A ‘floating’ road and a bridge built on a remote peatland site are among the projects undertaken by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) engineers in the north in the past year.
The planning, design and construction of this infrastructure to access timber for harvesting and peatland restoration are some of the tasks that have featured on the job list for FLS’ north region civil engineers.
Other works include building and maintaining standard or typical forest roads, vehicle and foot bridges, car parks, preparing steep ground for harvesting, culvert repairs and stabilising landslips.
During the 2025/26, the north region team delivered more than 150 projects across a range of operational needs. This resulted in:
- 5.78km of new roads
- 66km of road upgrades
- six new bridges
- 12 bridge maintenance jobs
- 100 culverts replaced.
The work helped FLS harvesting teams access 61 felling coupes and delivered improvements at eight visitor sites, including the major car park upgrade at Glenmore.
Ten quarries were opened or expanded to provide in-house supply of stone for the road works. In addition to the programmed work, the team assisted with three landslips and several emergency situations caused by weather-related events.
North region area civil engineer Liam Matheson said, “A lot of what the civils team does is unseen or in the background. The projects need a lot of detailed planning from concept through to delivery with many jobs requiring some level of permissions, prior notifications and authorisations from regulators such as SEPA, Scottish Forestry and NatureScot and power companies.
“There are often a range of challenges that our engineers contend with that arise from terrain and topography. Engineers must work with the landscape to integrate structures like roads and bridges with the natural environment. This ensures projects are safe, sustainable, and adapted to any ecological constraints.
“Working on peatland is one of the most testing when preparing access for harvesting teams to remove timber ahead of forest to bog restoration work. Building roads and bridges or crossings on peat is technically difficult because the ground has no load bearing capacity. Roads need to be ‘floating’ on top to minimise any impact on the hydrology of the area.”
FLS engineers are also involved in steep ground operations to pre-emptively mitigate against or react to damage caused by rain or wind events.
With a large and diverse area of land under FLS management in the north of Scotland, civil engineers are kept busy looking after existing infrastructure and resources. There are more than 1,500km of roads, almost 400 bridges, a ‘countless’ number of culverts and drains along with quarries.
A ‘floating’ road on peatland is built by leaving the soft, waterlogged peat in place and constructing the road on top using layers that spread the load. Engineers first lay a strong geotextile or geogrid to act like a support mat, then add lightweight materials such as gravel or crushed stone in layers to form a stable base and surface.
Drainage is also managed to maintain ground stability. This design allows the road to ‘float’ by distributing weight evenly rather than sinking. The benefits include improved stability on weak ground, lower construction costs compared to deep foundations, faster installation, reduced environmental impact by preserving peat, and suitability for remote or wet areas.
