The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week replaced a bridge on the trail along the north bank of Foster Lake that had been literally “falling apart,” according to a local resident, who brought it to the Corps’ attention three years ago.
Thanks to rotating assignments within the agency and the arrival of COVID-19, it took that long to get the bridge replaced, but Ken Bronson was there to help when the materials arrived.
He and several rangers began assembling the structure Oct. 29 and finished last week.
“We had this old bridge – I’m not sure when it was built, but the railing had rotted off and the boards had rotted too, so we wanted to fix it before it became a really huge safety hazard,” said Ranger Elena Kimble, who headed the project.
Bronson, a member of the Linn County Parks Board of Directors and an active participant in triathlons and similar events throughout the state, said he started talking to Corps officials in Cottage Grove three years ago about replacing the approximately 20-foot-long structure located about a quarter-mile west of Lewis Creek Park.
The trail along the north side of Foster Lake, created by local walking enthusiasts, has undergone ups and downs in terms of maintenance. A major effort to upgrade the trail was coordinated in 2011 by East Linn Cohort 3 of the Ford Family Leadership Institute, a group of local community leaders and activists trained in leadership skills through the Ford program.
Local groups, including Boy Scouts, have made forays into the area over the years to chop back blackberries and other brush, and clear trash from the walkway, which stretches from Lewis Creek Park to Marks Ridge Road, where it joins North River Drive. The trail stretches some two miles from end to end, and users often will travel one way on the trail, which winds and twists over the hilly terrain surrounding the lake, then return along the road.
Bronson, who occasionally runs it himself, said he worked with five different people get the bridge repaired. During a maintenance event three years ago, he walked the trail with an intern, who agreed that the bridge needed to be replaced. However, that individual moved on and “it was handed off to someone else, then someone else.”
“I’ve talked to so many people, I don’t even know who they all were,” he said last week.
At one time, all the parts necessary for replacing the structure were ordered, but shipped to Dorena Reservoir by mistake, he said.
Things came together this past summer.
“I really appreciate this last crew I worked with,” Bronson said. “They stuck with it, got it done.
“It’s been a long process.”