Beaver River Trestle to Celebrate its Grand Reopening

Beaver River Trestle is finally able to celebrate its Grand Reopening, on June 24th, after an arson in 2012 left the bridge unusable. Marianne Price, with Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail, laughs in jubilation that the journey to restoring the major structure is near competition.

The day will be filled with activities to celebrate the occasion, says Price, “from noon to 2:30 pm, we’ve got an open house atmosphere. We’re inviting people to come out to the trestle for a BBQ. We’re very fortunate that B&R Eckel’s will be out there with their grill, so we’ll be cooking up hamburgers & hotdogs.” It’ll be a great chance to check out the rebuild and go on the trestle. Price reminds people that you cannot drive on the Iron Horse Trail or Beaver River Trestle; you must use an off-road vehicle, walk, bike, or horseback. “We will have sponsored ATV vehicles at the Cold Lake staging area that’ll be shuttling people back & forth. So if someone wants to come out, but cannot get out on their own, we can help them,” Price says Power Merchants LTD of St. Paul and Cold Lake has donated some side-by-sides and ATVs to bring people to and from the trestle. There’s no set time for these rides, it’s basically come as you please and wait for a ride if there is not one there at the time.

The official ceremony and ribbon cutting will be at 3:00 pm with local dignitaries in attendance.

The trestle serves as the sole connector of the Iron Horse Trail to to Cold Lake, as well as, into Saskatchewan on the TransCanada Trail. Since the summer of 2012 the trestle has been impassable due to an arson which caused $1.4 million in damages. Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail is a non-profit organization and did not have insurance on the trestle; thus was left to raise the funds on their own to repair the structure.

After a series of provincial and federal grants came in to aid the funding, along with very generous public and industry donations, the organization was able to move forward with the rebuilding project. With that being said, the group is still short around $500,000.

The June 22 blaze, caused when a car was set on fire and pushed down an embankment towards the trestle, and came to rest against it, igniting it. Three men were found guilty in the arson Matthew Wakaruk, of Ardmore and Devon MacDonald and Clifford Grant-Katcheech,  both of Cold Lake. Each man received probation and a fine.