Wild Coast Magazine / Spring 08
Download a PDF version of the article here.
The February 2006 report arrived as almost a death-blow for the historic Kinsol Trestle.
Built earlier in the century and last trundled across by a railcar more than 25 years ago, the old railroad bridge was painted by the government-funded engineering report as a lost cause, with advanced decay in the wood, split or broken bracing members, decaying fasteners and rotten timber mudsills.
The recommendation to dismantle it was to be a sad ending for a bridge built at a more optimistic time in BC’s history. It was part of a parallel line built in competition to the existing Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway. Plans called to link Sidney and the island’s West Coast. And it was a suitably grand structure for such a grandiose but ultimately ill-fated plan. At 38 metres in height over the Koksilah River and made of an estimated 1.2 million board feet of lumber, it is now the largest remaining wooden trestle in the British Commonwealth. (Once the fourth largest, one was demolished and the other two are now outside the ever-shrinking kingdom.)
The bleak outlook was only marginally improved by an announcement by the province to provide $1.6 million for a replacement, filling a hole in Vancouver Island’s trail system: the key missing link in the Cowichan Valley portion of the Trans-Canada Trail, the crossing of the Koksilah River.
Unfortunately, the new link meant tearing down the Kinsol Trestle and replacing it with a reflection of the original using pressure-treated wood.
Fortunately, a veteran in the obscure art of heritage wood restoration happened to live in the Cowichan Valley. Gord Macdonald already had a few interesting projects under his belt through the firm Macdonald and Lawrence Timber Framing, including the Antarctica conservation of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans and Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Hut at Cape Royds, plus a new roof for Stirling Castle in central Scotland.
Macdonald also happened to be a fan of the Kinsol Trestle, and when he saw the report calling for a replacement built with pressure-treated wood, he had to take a second look.
“Pressure treated wood leaches into the surrounding soil and water system,” Macdonald said. “There was no question in my mind there would be an environmental impact.”
There was also the question of what to do with the creosote-coated wood from the old trestle, which can’t be burned or buried without a negative effect. So Macdonald took a closer look, and together with a handful of concurring opinions from his peers who inspected the trestle, reached a very different opinion from the original government study: namely that it would be cheaper to restore the bridge than replace it.
The new report immediately got the ear of the Cowichan Valley Regional District, but not without some debate. The good news for the CVRD was the $1.5 million for the bridge demolition and the $1.6 million for a replacement crossing could be put towards rebuilding the bridge instead – just so long as the CVRD took responsibility for the trestle.
The question remained, though, about long-term costs. A key player in the community drive to save the trestle, Tom Paterson, admitted this was a tough hurdle to overcome.
“Do we really want to go here and accept responsibility for the Kinsol Trestle when it’s not really ours?” Paterson said.
History wasn’t on the side of conservationists. As part of the Cowichan Valley’s contribution to the Trans-Canada Trail, several other trestles had already been rebuilt, with the bugbear of spiralling costs.
“They (the CVRD) got badly burned,” Paterson said. “If small trestles can cost a half million, what would the Kinsol cost?”
The Macdonald and Lawrence study estimated the restoration at $5.6 million, with higher maintenance costs than a replacement trestle. Even so, Paterson sees no need for debate on the issue.
“Even in a semi-derelict state there’s a majesty to the old girl. I think it’s the curves that do it,” the historical columnist and author said. “It represents construction designed by engineers but built by local men – local farmers and loggers. It represents a frontier enterprise.”
It’s already the highlight of the regional trail, even though it currently can’t be crossed. And the attention will only get better once it’s rebuilt, Paterson believes.
“The Kinsol Trestle will make our section of the Trans-Canada Trail,” he said. “The Trans-Canada Trail, if properly developed and properly marketed, can be a wonderful thing for the Cowichan Valley.”
So the decision by the regional district in late January to fund phase two of the study to restore the trestle was greeted by a sigh of relief by its supporters. It’s a long way from two years before, when the trestle was all but written off by everyone who had a say in the matter.
The next step is to look at methods of repair and other elements like access and details such as handrails, said CVRD parks manager Brian Farquhar. After that comes the fundraising, with the so-far uncommitted federal government making a good target for some of the expected $2.5 million shortfall.
Community fundraising will also play a part.
From there Macdonald said the reconstruction could take less than a year.
“The way we conceive it, the work could be done in a 10-month window from start to finish,” he said. “We envision the work done from both sides towards the centre and from the deck down. Of course, there’s a whole manner of ways it could be done more slowly.”
Copyright Wild Coast Magazine
Download a PDF version of the article here.
