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2 September 2004
Trestle for
Christmas
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Premier Gordon Campbell, foreground,
listens as Senator Ross Fitzpatrick announces $13.5 million in
federal-provincial funding to rebuild historic trestles
destroyed by the Okanagan Mountain forest fire last
summer.
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CPR, which still has the
original drawings, has offered its help in designing new look-alike
trestles that don't have to carry heavy freight trains.
"That will be a big boon for us", said Ken Campbell, former society
president. CPR still uses wooden trestles in its system, he said, so it has a
list of suppliers for timber replacements.
Construction of trestle No. 18 - 55 metres long and 10 metres high, will take
60,000 to 65,000 board-feet of lumber.
"It will be a learning experience for us and for the potential contractors
as well", said Campbell.
Trestle 18 has an advantage over the other 11 trestles to be rebuilt - it has a
vehicle bypass. The successful contractor for the first trestle can easily work
from both sides and a crane can use the gravel roadway to lower timbers into
place.
Lumber must be purchased, cut to proper length, bored for bolts, treated with
waterproofing, and shipped to the Myra Canyon for assembly, "all
compressed into a very short time-frame", said Campbell.
The provincial and federal governments, which are sharing the
$13.5-million bill, want work to begin as soon as possible
"so we're pulling out all the stops", he said.
Focusing on the design and going to tender on just one will save the society
valuable time this fall. Trestle 18 is also accessible so the public can see
the progress.
"So many people are interested and want to get involved", said
Campbell.
Although highly flammable creosote will likely be used to treat the new timbers,
CPR ran a train through the canyon for 80 years and never lost a trestle to
fire, he noted.
The society is drafting a better fire prevention strategy and ultimately may
bring a water supply in to the trestles.
In the days of steam, water tanks along the line were used to refill the steam
engines and water barrels were placed on the trestles for use by section crews
in case of any sparks.
The water came from KLO Creek, also known as the east fork of Canyon Creek.
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