Dec 19 2018
In early 2018, the GBCTA raised $ 500,000 from Rocky View County ($331,000) and TransCanada Trail Foundation ($169,000) to complete the construction of a pedestrian bridge, just east of Wild Rose, and 472 meters of strong post guardrail that is required as per the Rocky View County approved design for the subject trail.
The strong post guard rail was installed for the GBCTA in the summer of 2018 by Volker Stevin, under contract to Bragg Creek Excavating, providing trail user safety adjacent to the busy WBC road.
McElhanney were retained by the GBCTA to handle all the technical, regulatory approval, tendering, inspection and project management work for the pedestrian bridge project. They completed environmental technical work and obtained Department of Fisheries and Oceans regulatory approval for the bridge abutment installation work. However the one bridge abutment tender received exceeded the budget funds available, so the abutment work was deferred until August/September 2019. The GBCTA recently received approval for $70,000 in funding from Alberta TrailNet for the pedestrian bridge. The GBCTA had the bridge abutment work retendered and is pleased to confirm that A M McKay Contractors Ltd. has been awarded a contract to construct the pedestrian bridge for August/September 2019.
The pedestrian bridge superstructure was constructed by JimBob for the GBCTA and is in storage awaiting installation in September 2019. This price for the bridge superstructure was locked in before steel prices rose significantly due to US steel tariffs.
The GBCTA also installed a trail counter supplied by the TCT Foundation on the WBC TCT in the Hamlet of Bragg Creek, just east of the pedestrian crosswalk. The counter can distinguish between cyclists and pedestrians. The GBCTA will report on trail counts in 2019 once we have sufficient data.
The GBCTA plans to have snow removed from the WBC TCT during the winter of 2018/19 by Mike Frena, a GBCTA part time employee.
The GBCTA would like to thank all those who have supported this trail with funding, volunteer work or whatever you did to help make this project a reality.
We would like to recognize Carber Goodlet for his successful fundraising efforts and Conrad Schiebel, Bill Hoyne and Mike Frena for the installation of the trail counter.
We sincerely hope trail users enjoy this major new trail that helps connect our community while improving public safety and providing numerous other benefits.
Submitted by:
Eric Lloyd, Special Projects Coordinator (volunteer), GBCTA
