Building a bridge in Beaudry Park

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This article was published 04/02/2015 (4065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pedestrians and cyclists in the RM of Cartier’s Lido Plage area might soon be able to easily connect with the Headingley Grand Trunk Trail if a footbridge project goes ahead.

Grand Trunk Trail Association past-chair Karl Gompf, who also chairs the trail maintenance committee, said the proposed bridge will span a small unnamed creek that drains into the Assiniboine River within Beaudry Provincial Park. The association is working with Manitoba Conservation in hopes of having the footbridge built.

“We’ve been trying to extend the trail across the creek,” he said.

The Grand Trunk Trail runs across the southern portion of the RM of Headingley following the former Grand Trunk Pacific and CN Rail line. A train bridge once crossed the creek in Beaudry Park, but Gompf said the last train ran on the line in 1974.

He doesn’t know when the rail bridge was destroyed.

Beaudry Park lies within the RM of Cartier and Cartier reeve Dale Fossay would like to see residents of the municipality have the ability to walk or ride their bikes safely using the Grand Trunk Trail and Headingley’s active transportation network of walking and cycling trails.

Cartier council has written a letter to Manitoba Conservation supporting the footbridge request.

“It would certainly be a link for RM of Cartier residents,” Fossay said.

Cyclists or hikers coming from the west now have to use what Fossay describes as the fairly busy provincial road 424 to connect with the start of the Grand Trunk Trail. The bridge would allow them to stay off the road.

Gompf said the cost of the bridge project is being estimated, and he hopes to see work begin later this year.
 
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