The Drenthe town of Emmen is poised to be the first in the world with a cycle track based on wood, local paper Dagblad van het Noorden says on Wednesday.

The bike path will consist of pressed plates made up of wood chips and resins, which are known to be hard-wearing and tough. A short test track some 200 metres long will be laid this summer to test its strength, resistance to the weather and to hooligans, the paper says.

The trial will take several years but the first results should be ready in the autumn.

Funding

The project is backed by the Drenthe provincial government, local nature organisations and a string of companies including Grontmij, which will lay the test track. The Dutch German cross border Interreg investment fund is also putting €600,000 into the project.

If the trial is successful, its initiators hope to set up a factory to produce the wood chip plates which, they say, could eventually employ up to 75 people.