SUNDRE – The first student field trips and public visits to the new interpretive nature boardwalk on the east side of town could start this fall.
Mike Beukeboom, who spearheaded the project that over the past couple of years has been built in phases, expressed optimism during a July 11 interview with the Albertan that the final phase was nearing completion.
The crew of roughly half a dozen volunteers who’ve contributed their labour has been “flying; it’s awesome,” said Beukeboom.
“We’re a small group but they’re so impressive,” he said. “I’m pretty confident we will have the boardwalk completed by this fall.”
Last year, the volunteers had finished an estimated quarter of the entire boardwalk, he said.
The project got underway the year prior with an initial viewing platform amid a small clearing among the trees.
This year, Beukeboom said at the time of the interview that he estimated the boardwalk was more than two-thirds completed.
“There’s been real significant progress,” he said, adding a section that stretches out to a viewing platform overlooking the Red Deer River is finished.
The crew was more recently working to connect two sections of the boardwalk.
“The loop will be finished once that’s complete,” he said.
That will essentially leave the final homestretch connecting the boardwalk’s trailhead all the way back to the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) with a code-graded ramp surmounting the berm to grant full, barrier-free access to anyone and everyone regardless of their mobility.
“The last really big part of the project will be getting up and over the berm,” he said.
The access from the VIC was reserved for last as Beukeboom did not want to have a boardwalk inviting visitors and residents to explore, only for them to find an incomplete dead end.
“I didn’t want people who come out to get the feeling the project remains under construction,” he said. “We wanted to have that immediate impact of a complete project.”
As it turns out, even Beukeboom was still discovering hidden natural treasures despite spending so much time at the site.
“Something real exciting is on the east side of the loop; we basically found a massive patch of orchids,” he said, adding he had no idea the flowers were there until one day while walking past when his son Adam pointed them out.
“That’s going to be a real attraction; there’s a beautiful little grouping of orchids back there. They’re out of blossom right now; they’ve passed their flowering time, but it’ll be an attraction just by itself.”
The project also involves mounting interpretive educational displays that provide information on the local flora and fauna, such as the orchids.
“We’re working on that as we go. Hopefully, we have a group of signs ready to be posted as we get close to opening as well,” he said. “It’s very much a nature-related boardwalk; we’re in a provincial nature area, so that’s always been the focus.”
Had the project been tendered out and contracted, Beukeboom said a conservative cost estimate would quite easily have reached $250,000.
“I’ve heard of these things going up to $400,000,” he said.
But the cost was substantially reduced largely as a result of the volunteer labour as well as donations from local companies such as West Fraser Sundre Forest Products, Sundre Home Hardware and Wellworks Energy Services, with some additional financial as well as in-kind support from the municipality.
Additionally, the project was designed with a minimal footprint and built to sit on the surface so as to avoid digging deep into the ground and potentially causing unnecessary environmental impacts, he said.
“If the municipality were to put out a bid for this project, a quarter million (dollars) would be a heck of a good price,” Beukeboom said.
Linda Nelson, Sundre’s chief administrative officer, said on July 12 during an interview that council had approved allocating $80,000 for the project in this year’s budget to purchase materials for the boardwalk.
Additionally, administrative staff previously had to navigate the bureaucratic process involved in submitting to Alberta Environment and Parks a permit application, which was a roughly two-year effort.
“That’s quite a process, but they did grant us a permit to use Crown land for the boardwalk,” she said.
“It took two years to go through the entire process,” she said, adding that renewing the permit is much more simple and far less time consuming as the groundwork has already been laid.
And early on when Beukeboom proposed a vision for the boardwalk, the municipality had at the time provided a $10,000 grant, she added.
“So, the total cash contribution the town has put in will be $90,000,” she said, adding that’s still a bargain compared to what the project would have cost if put out to tender to a contractor.
“The labour has been 100 per cent free,” said Nelson. “They’ve been going for the past couple of months almost every day except on the weekends, starting work early in the morning and going all the way until late in the afternoon.”
Several months of full-time work involving eight-hour days, five days a week would otherwise represent a substantial labour cost, she said.
“It’s all free; they’re doing this just to help with the project,” she said. “We’re getting a boardwalk for $90,000; that’s pretty impressive. And they haven’t asked for anything in return.”
In response to being asked about the original commitment from the municipality to provide only in-kind support where it could without direct financial assistance and what might have changed since then, Nelson said, “I think when council saw the level of support that the volunteers were putting in, it just made perfect sense to fund the materials.”
