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Legacy Trail extension to be completed this summer

CANMORE – The final section of the Legacy Trail to the Canmore Nordic Centre will be completed this summer, nearly two years after it was supposed to be finished.
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The final portion of the Legacy Trail to the Canmore Nordic Centre is expected to be completed this summer.

CANMORE – The final section of the Legacy Trail to the Canmore Nordic Centre will be completed this summer, nearly two years after it was supposed to be finished.

The upper portion of the trail within the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park was completed last fall, however construction of the lower portion of the trail from the base of the wooden stairs to the park boundary was not completed before winter.

Approval to build the trail was stalled for over a year until July 2017, after it was discovered that a five-metre section of the trail crossed land belonging to Municipal Affairs.

“In July of 2017 the government of Alberta provided the Town of Canmore a ‘permission to enter and construct’ agreement, giving them access to the Legacy Trail area and the ability to start construction,” wrote Geoffrey Driscoll, a communications advisor for municipal affairs.

Félix Camiré, a project engineer with the Town of Canmore, said construction of the lower portion of the trail is expected to re-start in the next few weeks.

“The trail should be completed this summer for all to enjoy,” wrote Camiré.

In 2013 Alberta Culture and Tourism approved $2.5 million to extend the Legacy Trail from the east gate of Banff National Park to the Travel Alberta visitor information centre.

That work was completed along with improvements to connect the trail from the visitor information centre to Railway Avenue and then onward to the Spurline Trail and the Engine Bridge, however, there was $843,000 left over.

As a result, in 2014 those funds were dedicated to design and build an extension of the trail to the Nordic Centre.

The aim of the multi-use gravel extension is to create a trail with reasonable grades that will allow users to access the Nordic Centre directly from town.

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