The Canadian Military Engineers Association helps the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club with rebuilding a bridge.

Article by Jack Morgan

When the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club decided that the 25 year old 40 metre wooden footbridge over Mill Creek needed to be rebuilt it pondered its options.  The bridge is in a deep rugged gorge, in perhaps the most inaccessible and difficult location on the Beaver Valley section of the Trail, situated as it is between the Duncan Crevice Caves Provincial Nature Reserve and Metcalfe Rock on the western edge of Kolapore Uplands.

            The Club's Trail Development and Maintenance Director, Will Overton, recalled seeing a list of organizations that were willing to provide volunteer assistance to BTC clubs that the Conservancy's Volunteer Coordinator, Jackie Randle, had circulated at a TD&M Directors' meeting.  He remembered that on the list was the name of an army engineering unit.  So Will did some investigating and discovered the 32^nd Combat Engineer Regiment, a reserve (militia) unit of the Canadian Military Engineers operating out of Downsview in Toronto. 

            Will contacted the unit and learned that the regiment had a militia training squadron with a mandate that included seeking out training missions for its soldiers that would at the same time provide assistance to non-profit organizations, like the Bruce Trail Conservancy, in engineering and construction projects.  The Mill Creek bridge reconstruction was exactly the kind of project the unit favoured, with its inherent training possibilities and its engineering, construction and logistical challenges.

            The 32^nd CER has a distinguished history as a "sapper" unit.  Its origins can be traced to its incorporation in 1876 as a Toronto Engineer Company.  Since then and under various regimental and divisional designations over the years (for instance as the 1^st Divisional Engineers in WW1 and as the 2^nd Divisional Engineers in WW2 where it participated in the 1942 Dieppe raid and the 1944-45 battles to liberate north west Europe) the unit has served its country in a field combat engineering capacity.

            So in the late spring of 2010 the Beaver Valley Club and the 32^nd Combat Engineer Regiment came together to begin planning for the bridge reconstruction.  Under the command of Capt. Brian Lee and Sgts. Kent Burtenshaw and Anderson Thomas the 32^nd CER reconnoitered the project, prepared its engineering and construction specifications, provided the club with a materials list and mapped out the logistical support the unit would need.

            In its turn the Club found financial support in the form of a TD Friends of the Environment grant to purchase the necessary materials.  Will Overton put together a small group of club volunteers that included John Hollingsworth, Joelle Martin, Jim Robins, Jack Morgan and Trail Captains, Fay and Dave Whitney, to provide support for the military effort.  The Club obtained permission and moral support from the Richardson and Stuart families, landowners on and over whose property the project would take place.

            So it was that on the Tuesday of the last week of October, 2011 an advance party of the 32^nd CER unit arrived to begin the mission.  On the high ground above Mill Creek the unit established a camp where the men would cook, eat and sleep under canvas for the week.  On Wednesday morning the men set to work in earnest.  The old bridge came down quickly, a new bridge support gabion basket was installed, the old gabions were resurfaced, the important C-channel main span across the widest and deepest part of the creek was realigned and the materials for the new bridge were cut to size. 

            On Friday, two days later, the rest of the work party arrived.  The full complement of 20 men then began the construction of the new bridge using a zip-line pulley system to get the new bridge materials, which had been prefabricated on site, down into the gorge and to bring the remains of the old bridge up and out.  The unit worked hard and efficiently; the new bridge, replete with benches placed strategically in the middle of the main span over the creek where hikers could rest and enjoy the view, quickly took shape.  The early, careful planning was paying off.

            Amazingly, by late Sunday afternoon the job was finished, the men had broken camp, the vehicles the unit had brought with it (which included a small 4 ton truck and a bobcat that had been used to get the lumber and the generators, saws and other tools the roughly 700 metres in from the nearest road to the zip-line site) were loaded on their flatbeds and the men were on their way home.

            It had been quite a week.  The army unit had fulfilled its training mandate and the Beaver Valley Bruce Trail Club had a beautiful new bridge.  But there was more to it than that.  The 32^nd CER and specifically the men who did the work knew they were involved in something more than a training mission.  They had built something for the larger community that would be used by generations of Bruce Trail hikers and so would stand for a long time as a tribute to their skills and dedication.  They had added a small peaceful chapter to their unit's history.

If you have a group of employees interested in volunteering, please contact  Jackie Randle at jrandle@brucetrail.org