17 December 2004
Trestle Restoration
Project Begins
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Tiny figures are working high
above the city today in a black and white landscape coloured only by flashes of the rusty red of
dead needles and the misty blue of the hills across Okanagan Lake.
Half a dozen workers from SureSpan Construction are braving winter weather at the 1,200 metre
elevation to re-construct trestle 18 on the historic Kettle Valley Railway.
Although there's a modern 50-tonne crane on site, the work is otherwise proceeding much
as it would have a century earlier when this railroad was first carved out of the solid rock that is
Myra Canyon.
A layer of hoar frost has formed on the remaining needles dying on trees that were incinerated in the
summer of 2003, when the Okanagan Mountain Park fire whipped through here.
When the mountainside cooled, there were 12 fewer trestle bridges spanning the cuts in these canyon
walls, and the hills were barren of the lush green which had been a feature days before.
Branchless spires of black rose from the ashy ground, along with the occasional plume of smoke, but
the transportation corridor that had carried steam trains through this rugged canyon for decades, was
no more.
Last summer, the federal and provincial governments announced $13.5 million in disaster assistance
funding to be spent to rebuild the structures in the next three years, with the first to be completed
before the end of this year.
A first contract was awarded in late October to SureSpan to rebuild trestle 18, similar to the
original, but with twice the span, since it doesn't need to carry heavy steam trains.
Despite the weather, they've been able to get right to work.
Boldly ignoring the height, the workmen appear small pushing nine-metre long
12-by-20s around in space above the canyon with the City of Kelowna's floating bridge
looking inconsequential in the background.
Today, they're lifted into space by a modern invention, but in the end it's the brain and muscle power
of man that calculates, measures and settles each stringer in place, then bolts it there for the next
few decades.
It's been probably six decades since this particular span was last replaced.
Since the initial construction in the early years of the 20th century, most of the trestles were
replaced about three times.
Mark Smith is business development manager for SureSpan. He says the company specializes in bidding
on bridge projects that aren't run-of-the-mill.
"If it's difficult, remote and needs ingenuity, we're there," he says with a grin. "We
like the weird ones."
Because their work takes them all over the province and as far afield as Indonesia, Nunavut and
northern Ontario, the crews are also from all over, says Smith.
In fact, he figures they've done many more projects in the Kelowna area than near home base in West
Vancouver.
What's fascinating about this project, he says, is the interest it's generating.
It's ironic, he says, that they can build a $20 million bridge and no one even mentions it.
But this $350,000 reconstruction of a historic train trestle in Myra Canyon even has radio stations
up in the snow to broadcast talk shows live from the site.
Myra Canyon was designated a National Historic Site just months before fire destroyed most of the
wooden trestles, a significant tourism draw.
It is also part of the Trans Canada Trail, which follows the old Kettle Valley Railway corridor
through much of B.C.'s interior.
The year before fire incinerated many of the trestle links in the canyon it had attracted 50,000
people from all over the world, for the great cycling and hiking, the panoramic views and spectacular
scenery of this part of B.C.'s heritage.
Now the committee responsible for reconstruction is putting together the bid package for design of
the remaining trestles, which will go out in January.
The next step, explains Ken Campbell of the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society, is going through
the same bid procedure for the construction.
They hope to get construction on the next trestle underway in May, when the snow will have melted at
that elevation. The society's hope is to get a total of five trestles rebuilt next year.
It hasn't been decided yet whether they'll award two contracts for construction so work can be
carried on simultaneously at either end of the canyon, or as one contract. Whichever way they do it,
SureSpan intends to be among those in the running.
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