by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 10/97) - A steel and timber pedestrian bridge is going to be constructed on the Cameron River just above the falls.

Tenders have been put out for the job, expected to cost between $50,000 and $100,000, and construction will begin as early as February at the popular scenic destination on the Ingraham Trail, 50 kilometres east of Yellowknife.

The bridge will be the latest addition to a growing network of walking trails and canoeing routes in the area, said Gary Tees, parks services manager for the North Slave district.

The bridge will not be visually obtrusive, he said, as it will be installed about 200 metres upriver. There it will be all but invisible from most viewing spots of the falls due to the lay of the land as the falls are approached, he said.

The bridge will be a two-metre-wide steel arch with wood flooring. Cement footings for the bridge, which will cross between two bedrock outcrops, have already been laid, and the bridge itself was carefully chosen, Tees said.

"We went through a number of designs so it does not look like an urbanized, big ugly thing," he said.

"It will be wide enough for a couple to walk across hand-in-hand."

The territorial Transportation Department, which has the bridge-building expertise, will handle the construction work. Jivko Jivkov of the department said the materials will be lifted to the site, approximately two kilometres north of the Ingraham Trail, by helicopter so that roads don't have to be cut and environmental damage is minimized.

The site chosen was the most convenient for hikers as opposed to a location below the falls or further upriver, he said.

Tees said the plans for the bridge were contained in a long-term strategic plan drafted for the Cameron River-Hidden Lake area several years ago.

People have been crossing the Cameron River to hike on the other side or canoe the river for years, he said, and the trail network will follow those existing walking paths as the area is developed in the future, again to minimize environmental damage.

Trails leading to the falls and portages in the Hidden Lake area have already been upgraded over the past several years by the parks service, which is eyeing the area as a centrepiece for outdoor activity outside Yellowknife.