Queens County residents could be walking on the Trestle Trail Bridge as soon as this winter.
Queens Rails to Trails have secured the $490,000 they say is needed for Phase 1 of construction.
After completing that phase, the bridge would be open for the first time since closing in 2014 due to safety concerns.
The Region of Queens Municipality committed $90,000 to the cause at this week’s council meeting.
Mayor David Dagley says the rest of the cash has also been committed.
“From information received from Rails to Trails, the province has committed $150,000 to phase one, and the J&W Murphy Foundation has committed $250,000.”
Rails to Trails and the municipality entered into an agreement in 2016 to make the trail shared use as a cost sharing measure.
Dagley says if it wasn’t for Rails to Trails and their status as a non-profit society, they have access to different avenues of funding.
“We would have to go a different route than the rails to trails non-profit society and we would end up with an engineering report that would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Another million dollars will be needed to complete the entire project.
That work will need to be done over the next five years.
If the appropriate trails can be connected to the bridge, it will also see ATV traffic, as well as cyclists and pedestrians.
Rails to Trails is looking into those trail options, which has already included some public consultation.
The plan remains to have construction begin in the fall and be completed by winter.
Story by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca
