Members of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown were on hand Thursday to help officially open a new bridge in Rockwood Park.
The bridge will allow better access to the park’s north side trail system. Rockwood Park is unique in that it is one of a few parks with trail systems within the urban area of a city
“What we did was the heavy equipment portion come in and build the abutment for the bridge to sit on, basically to stable force for the bridge to be able to sit on,” Sgt. Warren Reid said. “Then shortly after we were done the field troops moved in, took over, they set up the bridge part.”
“Everyone benefits from the building of a bridge like this. For the military it’s a very important training tool and for the community at large, it provides more access to the trail system.”
“It’s one of the one of the fun things we get to do in the military,” Reid said. “Go out and help the community and do something that’s going to be this productive for the park.”
The training aspect is key here — the military crews had to build this bridge on very short notice.
“We had to react very quickly to a new situation,” said Major Alexandre Pedneault. “As combat engineers we need to allow friendly forces to be able to move from one location to another.”
For park goers, it adds to the impressive 55 kilometres of trails for people to use.
“This is sort of a main arterial trail that allows us to get to the back parts of the park,” Rockwood Park naturalist Emilie Murphy said. “Before it always had major washouts so it was always not for the faint of heart.”
The projects adds both to the trail system and the Trans Canada Trail which runs through the park.