Got the land? We build the track.
Jumps, berms, rollers, and trail that still holds its shape in year three. We are an excavation contractor, so a track is grading and drainage to us, which is exactly what most backyard tracks are missing. We also tell you up front which New Jersey rules your project trips, because moving this much soil is regulated even on your own property.
The short answer
Building a dirt bike track, ATV trail, or mountain bike trail is an earthwork project: cut and fill, compaction, and drainage. In New Jersey it is also a regulated one. Any soil disturbance over 5,000 square feet, roughly an eighth of an acre, needs a Soil Erosion and Sediment Control plan certified by your county Soil Conservation District and sealed by a licensed New Jersey engineer, and a typical track is many times that size. If your property sits in the Highlands Preservation Area, disturbing an acre or more can make it Major Highlands Development and bring NJDEP into the approval. If there is wetland or wet ground anywhere near the work, the transition area around it can extend up to 150 feet and is regulated too. None of this stops you from building. It just decides whether you build it once or twice.
Regulatory facts on this page are drawn from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, the NJ Highlands Council, and NJDEP, each linked in place. Last reviewed August 3, 2026.
Four New Jersey rules that decide your track project
These are the ones that catch people, usually after the first weekend of pushing dirt. Every answer here links to the state source it came from so you can check it yourself.
| Question | Answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Do I need an erosion plan to shape my own land? | In New Jersey, almost certainly yes. Any project disturbing more than 5,000 square feet of soil needs a Soil Erosion and Sediment Control plan certified by your county Soil Conservation District, and those plans carry the seal of a licensed New Jersey professional engineer. That threshold is about an eighth of an acre. A modest backyard track runs three to five acres, so it clears the line many times over. | NJ Dept. of Agriculture |
| What counts as disturbance? | More than you would guess. The state counts regrading, soil stockpiles, drainage work, retaining walls, and even the tracks your machines cut getting to the work area. Piling dirt into jumps and cutting trail bench is disturbance in every sense the rule means. | NJ Dept. of Agriculture |
| Does the Highlands Act apply to me? | If you are in northern New Jersey, check before you dig. The Highlands region covers 88 municipalities across Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren counties, and roughly 398,000 acres of it is the stricter Preservation Area. Inside the Preservation Area, residential work that disturbs an acre or more can qualify as Major Highlands Development, which puts NJDEP in the approval path. | Highlands Council |
| What if there is wet ground on the property? | Then stop and get it delineated first. The Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act regulates work in wetlands and in the upland transition areas next to them, which can extend up to 150 feet. Excavating, filling, grading, and changing how water drains are all regulated activities. A wet corner you have always ridden around is exactly the thing that turns a fun project into a violation. | NJDEP |
Find the district that certifies plans where you are: New Jersey Soil Conservation Districts. Morris County landowners can start with the Morris County district's SESC page.
Our seven counties are the Highlands seven counties
The New Jersey Highlands region covers 88 municipalities across Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren counties. That is the same seven counties we work in, which is not a coincidence at all once you look at a map: the Highlands is the hilly, wooded, well drained part of the state, and that is exactly the ground people want to ride on.
Of the roughly 800,000 acres in the region, about 398,000 are designated Preservation Area, where the rules are tighter. Inside it, residential work that results in an ultimate disturbance of one acre or more can be treated as Major Highlands Development, and NJDEP runs the regulatory program for that. A three acre track is well past one acre.
The practical version: before you fall in love with a layout, find out which side of the Preservation Area line your property is on. It is a five minute question that changes the whole shape of the project, and we would rather ask it on the first walk than after a plan is drawn.
Sources: NJ Highlands Council: the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act · NJDEP Watershed & Land Management: Highlands
It is almost always water, and it is almost always fixable up front
Ask anyone who built their own track what went wrong and you will hear the same three things: the landing turned into a puddle, the berms washed out, and the whole thing needed rebuilding every spring. All three are drainage. A jump face is just fill, and fill with water moving through it does not stay a jump face.
This is the part that makes an excavation contractor worth hiring for what looks like a landscaping job. Grade reversals so water leaves the trail at a low point instead of running its length. Outslope on the tread so it sheds instead of collecting. Crowns on the flat sections. Swales and pipe where the site genuinely needs them. Rock armoring on the wet crossing that will never hold on soil alone. None of it is glamorous and all of it decides whether you are riding in April or rebuilding in April.
The second half is compaction. Features built in lifts and compacted as they go hold their shape under use. Material pushed into a pile looks identical on the day it is finished and comes apart within a few weekends. You cannot tell the difference by looking, which is exactly why it gets skipped.
Related work we do every week: grading & drainage.
What the features are actually called
Useful whether you are briefing us or arguing with your kid about what to build. Moto features, bike features, and the ones both disciplines share.
Takeoff and landing MOTO
The two halves of any jump. The takeoff is the ramp that sets the angle a rider leaves at, and the landing is the downslope built to receive them. The landing does the safety work, so it gets built longer and smoother than most people expect.
Tabletop MOTO
A jump with a flat deck joining the takeoff to the landing. Coming up short means you land on the deck instead of in a gap, which is why tabletops are the sane starting point on a private track.
Double MOTO
Takeoff and landing separated by an open gap. Less forgiving than a tabletop and a decision to make on purpose, not by accident when a tabletop erodes.
Rollers and rhythm section MOTO
A run of evenly spaced mounds ridden in sequence. Spacing is the whole design. Get it right and the section flows, get it wrong and it fights every rider who touches it.
Berm BOTH
A banked turn. A properly built berm is compacted fill with the bank angle carried all the way through the corner, and it is the single feature that most separates a built track from a mowed path.
Whoops MOTO
A series of closely spaced bumps meant to be skimmed at speed. Punishing to ride and punishing to maintain, so they belong on tracks that will actually get groomed.
Pump track BIKE
A continuous loop of rollers and berms designed to be ridden without pedaling, by pumping the bike through the transitions. Small footprint, enormous use per acre, and it works for bikes, balance bikes, and skateboards.
Flow trail BIKE
A descending machine-built trail with grade, berms, and rollers laid out so momentum carries the rider. It is the style most bike parks build now because it suits a wide skill range.
Bench cut BOTH
A trail tread cut into a hillside so the running surface is level across its width. It is how a trail on a slope stays put instead of sliding downhill in the first heavy year.
Grade reversal BOTH
A deliberate dip and rise built into a trail so water leaves at a low point instead of running the length of the trail. The cheapest drainage there is, and the most commonly skipped.
Armoring BOTH
Rock or hardened surface set into a section that will not stay solid on soil alone, usually a wet crossing or a hard-braking zone.
Doubletrack and singletrack BIKE
Doubletrack is wide enough for a machine or side by side riding, singletrack is one rider wide. ATV routes are usually doubletrack, and the width decision drives everything about how the corridor drains.
How a track or trail build actually runs
Walk the property first
Before anything gets priced we walk it with you. Where the water goes, where the rock is shallow, which slopes will hold a trail and which will not, and where the wet ground is. Most of what makes a track good or bad is decided in this walk, not later with a machine.
Sort the paperwork
We tell you plainly which of the New Jersey rules on this page your project trips, and what the Soil Conservation District will want. It is better to hear that from us up front than from an inspector after the dirt is moved.
Rough shaping
Cut and fill to get the layout on the ground. This is dozer and excavator work, moving the bulk material into the shapes the plan calls for and putting the cut where the fill needs it so you are not paying to truck soil you already own.
Drainage before surface
Grade reversals, outslope, crowns, and any pipe or swale the site needs, all in before the finish surface goes on. Water is what destroys tracks, and drainage built in at this stage is a fraction of the cost of fixing ruts every spring.
Compaction and finish
Jump faces and berms get built in lifts and compacted as they go, not heaped and hoped for. Loose fill looks finished on day one and falls apart by the third weekend of riding.
Access and staging
The parts nobody pictures until they need them. A way to get a truck and trailer in, somewhere to park, and a route a machine can use later for maintenance without tearing across the features.
Backyards, clubs, and public projects
Private landowners
The most common one. Someone with acreage, a family that rides, and a spot on the property that could be a real track instead of a worn path. Usually the first person to find out about the erosion plan requirement, and usually after they have already started.
Camps, clubs, and schools
Organized riding needs a layout that works for a range of skill levels at once, and features that hold up to volume instead of one family's weekend use.
Parks, towns, and land trusts
Public trail and pump track projects that go out for bid. This is closest to the site work we already do for institutional clients, with the same expectations around plans, inspections, and documentation.
Contractors and developers
Amenity trail networks inside a larger site plan, where the trail work has to fit the approved grading and stormwater design rather than fight it.
Being straight about what this is
JWSR is an excavation contractor. Track and trail work is earthwork, which is the work we do every week: cut and fill, compaction, drainage, access roads, and finish grading. We are not a motocross design firm and we do not pretend to be. If you want a competition venue built to a sanctioning body's standards, hire a designer who works to those standards and bring us in to build the ground to their plan.
We also scope the vegetation side separately from what is described here. This page is shaping, drainage, and surface. If your spot needs trees and heavy brush dealt with before any of that can happen, call and we will talk through how to handle it rather than quietly folding it into an earthwork quote.
And we are not your Soil Conservation District, your town, or NJDEP. We can tell you which rules your project looks like it trips and work to a certified plan, but the certifying is theirs to do.
Seven counties, and we travel for the right job
Riding land tends to be where the hills are, so most of this work lands in the northwest corner. These are the counties we cover day to day. Outside them, call anyway and we will give you an honest answer about whether we are the right crew.
Looking for your specific town? Browse all service areas.
Track and trail building, answered
How much land do I need for a dirt bike track?
Enough that the layout is not fighting the boundary. Small private tracks are commonly built on a few acres, and more room mostly buys you longer straights, safer runouts, and separation between features. A pump track is the exception and can do a lot in a fraction of an acre.
Do I really need a permit to build a track on my own land?
You need a certified erosion plan for soil disturbance over 5,000 square feet anywhere in New Jersey, and that alone catches nearly every track. Depending on where you are, the Highlands Act and the wetlands rules can add more. It is your land, but moving that much soil is regulated regardless of who owns it.
What does a track cost to build?
It depends almost entirely on how much material has to move and whether the ground cooperates. Shallow rock, a wet corner, or fill that has to be imported change the number more than the feature list does. We price it after walking the property, not from a phone call.
Can you work with a designer or a layout I already have?
Yes. Plenty of people arrive with a layout drawn up, from a designer or from a season of riding the property. We are the earthwork side of it. If the plan needs adjusting to fit the drainage or the rules, we will say so before we build it.
What kind of soil makes a good riding surface?
A loam, something with enough clay to hold a shape and enough sand to drain, is what most riders are after. Pure sand will not hold a berm and heavy clay turns greasy wet and concrete hard dry. Part of the walk is finding out what you have and whether the good material on site can be moved to where the features go.
Will the track hold up, or do I have to rebuild it every spring?
That is decided by drainage and compaction, and it is the honest reason to have this built rather than pushed together. Features built in compacted lifts with water routed away hold their shape. Loose piles with water running through them do not.
Do you handle the trees and brush too?
That is a separate conversation and a separate scope from what is on this page. This page is the earthwork: shaping, drainage, and surface. Call us and we will tell you straight how to handle the vegetation side.
Do you build tracks for racing or sanctioned events?
We build the ground. Sanctioning bodies have their own design and inspection standards for competition venues, and if that is your goal you want a designer who works to those standards, with us doing the earthwork to their plan.
Grading & drainage
The core of any track build. Getting water off the ground and keeping it off is most of what makes riding surface last.
See the service →Land clearing & site prep
Opening up a lot and getting it ready for what comes next, scoped separately from the earthwork on this page.
See the service →Driveways & access
Getting a truck and trailer to the riding area, and giving a machine a way back in for maintenance later.
See the service →Got a few acres and an idea?
Free on-site walk anywhere we work, and a straight answer on what the ground and the rules will allow before you spend anything. Call 862-268-2510.
Call 862-268-2510