The dream to have recreational trail for hikers, bikers and roller bladers from Red Deer to the far end of Lacombe County is one step closer thanks to a pedestrian bridge over the Blindman River.
The grand opening of the project on Saturday afternoon was a chance to celebrate International Trails Day and drew around 70 people to the site. The crowd was made up members of the Central Alberta Regional Trails Society, federal, provincial and municipal politicians, those who built the project and others.
The more than $300,000 bridge project, which was completed in April, is accessible from Red Deer by going to the end of Taylor Drive and then driving north close to five km along the C&E Trail until you get to the Blindman River.
Debbie Olsen, president of the Central Alberta Regional Trails Society, said it seemed like a mammoth project when the society and the Central Albertan municipalities started working on it many years ago. They had the dream of connecting Central Alberta using trails that would allow people to walk or ride their bikes from Red Deer to Blackfalds and then to Lacombe.
She said the bridge will be a key link in that project and also in the Trans Canada Trail, which is a national network attempting to link trails across the country.
Phil Lodermeier, manager of operations for Lacombe County, said the bridge is the start of a two-km paved trail, following north along the C&E Trail into Lacombe County that the municipality will be working on this summer.
“It’s really the start of our trail system in Lacombe County. We were a real rural county. We concentrated on core services.
“We built roads and paved roads and we maintained them so getting into recreation was something different for us” Lodermeier said.
“We think it’s a huge amenity for our residents to have a heathier lifestyle and the ability to do something different. When we develop areas like this they can picnic and enjoy nature and get a good workout too.”
He said in 2011 Lacombe County has plans to continue the trail from Blackfalds to Lacombe, likely along the east side of Lacombe Lake. Eventually the county hopes to have 20 km of trails from one end of the county to the other.
Lacombe County and the federal government each donated $50,000 towards the project. The Alberta Trail Net put $100,000 towards it, Trans Canada Trail gave $67,000 and the National Trails Coalition put $50,000 towards it.
Armstrong Consulting Services did the project planning, with Sveinson Consulting Engineers Ltd. doing the bridge design and Timcon Construction Ltd. doing the bridge fabrication and installation. The 41 Combat Engineer Regiment, made up of the 33rd Engineer Squadron from Calgary and the 25th Engineer Squadron from Edmonton, installed the bridge deck and handrails as part of a training exercise in March for free, but the value of the work they did was estimated at $50,000.
Capt. Anthony Wachtler said it only took the Canadian reserve unit a weekend to put the deck and handrails on the bridge, with 30 people from the regiment on site. On the Saturday morning they started the project it snowed, but they had no shortage of warm clothes and pressed on with the project.
“It is a reserve unit so we like to practise our construction skills and to do that we try to do one project a year,” Wachtler said. The bridge project offered the reserves a chance to practice their skills, while benefitting the community.
sobrien@www.reddeeradvocate.com