Construction of the Whitecourt Valleyview Cutoff, by W. C. F. Beattie
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Construction of the Whitecourt Valleyview Cutoff, by W. C. F. Beattie Following completion of construction on Highway 35 to the NWT boundary I went to the Edmonton office with Jack Church sometime in mid summer of 1948. I had been promoted to Senior Instrument Man during my time on the Mackenzie Highway and I stayed with Jack until the spring of 1950. We worked in the Edmonton office until we had completed the “Finals” for the contactors who had built and gravelled the Mackenzie highway and then went back out into the field on various survey and construction projects. These included survey of highway from Redcliffe- Medicine Hat, Bieseker- Three Hills, Blue Ridge-Whitecourt, Carrot Creek-Edson, and Barrhead-Fort Assinaboine. We also commenced grading from Barrhead to the Ferry crossing before winter shut us down in the fall of 1949. In the spring of 1950 Jack and my other superiors decided I was capable of running small construction projects on my own and I was sent to construct a new highway from Chipman to Mundare. This was a fairly simple project that involved paralleling the railway for a distance of approximately 15 miles and construction was with a good crew. I completed this job in early fall and was working in the Edmonton office to finalize the paper work when I was advised to go to a meeting with the deputy minister and chief construction engineer. Alex Frame (a dour Scotsman) who I had not previously met and Allen Bull who I had met. It was with great trepidation that I prepared for this meeting as I had always been told that anyone called into the “corner office” was in for a serious reprimand and possibly dismissal. I could not think of anything I had done wrong so reluctantly proceeded as requested. Alex Frame came directly to the point and stated we had to construct a highway from Whitecourt to Valleyview and I was the only engineer available with bush experience. They wanted me to commence the survey from Whitecourt as soon as possible. He stated that Allen Bull had rented a plane and flown from Whitecourt to Iosegen Lake along the old railway survey. (few people know that the railway from Edmonton- Grande Prairie had been surveyed on this route which extended up the Athabasca River approximately 30 miles and then more or less straight North past Iosegun Lake prior to WW 1. Some construction on this route had been done and some rail had even been laid north and west of Whitecourt. This rail was apparently pulled up during the war and used to make swords and guns. They then flew back over the Swan Hills and said that neither location was suitable – so I would have to go somewhere through the middle. This left a pretty big window through totally un-surveyed territory. Alex said “we want you to start on the South end and another crew will start on the North. Hopefully you will meet somewhere near Iosegun. They will have it pretty easy because they will follow the old railway survey to near Iosegun Lake. You on the other hand will be going through virgin un-surveyed territory”. He was right – after we crossed the Athabasca there was no sign anyone had ever been there before until we encountered a dog team trail near Iosegun Lake made by trappers Wes Reed and his wife. Alex said “we have a new tool which should be a big help – aerial photos. They haven’t been used before for this purpose but they should be helpful. You have free access to any personnel and equipment you require and the only condition we have is that you have 20 miles located, cleared, surveyed, designed, and ready to go to contract by April 1st. Do you have any questions?” I said “yes sir, I was planning to get married at Christmas”. Alex replied “Well, it doesn’t take long to get married so you can have a couple of days off. Good luck laddie and we’ll see you in the spring” With that the interview was over and I left with my head swimming. Here I was a 24 year old farm boy being given the largest project in the province. Little did I know that I would spend the best part of 5 years on this job, and that during that time 5 engineers would come and go on the North end. The first thing I did was get a map and find out where this place called Valleyview was. I knew where Whitecourt was from being there with Church. I then started to round up survey crews. One instrument man was Bill Mueller who was with me for the entire 5 years. I contacted Mike Craig, a government foreman who I had worked with on a previous job, and told him to move to Whitecourt with a full clearing crew and start building an ice bridge across the Athabasca as soon as it stopped flowing. Mike was a giant of a man and somewhat unorthodox but he got the work done. I arranged for a camp and cook and told her to prepare to stay isolated at spring time and take groceries accordingly. I arranged for a supply of dodge army jeeps for the crew and a nearly new Ford pickup for myself. I discussed the starting point with my supervisor Jack Lestor who was an old railway surveyor and we decided to start from the end of the earlier survey I had done with Church and cross the Athabasca below the confluence of the Athabasca and Macleod, about ½ mile downstream from Whitecourt. We moved our vehicle entourage to Whitecourt and found the river running slush and we could not cross. We set up camp in Whitecourt and started to do what surveying was necessary south of the river. Mike was busy trying to get an ice bridge started but wasn’t progressing too well. Eventually we got enough ice to walk across and started survey on the north. I had picked a bridge site and had planned to follow a creek up the north side but this soon proved unworkable so I decided to abandon the survey Church and I had done to get into the river valley. The location we had established would have been adequate only as an access to Whitecourt but wouldn’t provide a new highway. I therefore decided to cross the Macleod and the Athabasca and plan on a revised access to Whitecourt. I phoned Jack Lester and told him what I was planning – that a bridge on the Macleod would at some time in the future be required, that we would have a shorter bridge on the Athabasca, and that I was sure we could get a better location into Whitecourt. He simply said “you are doing it but don’t forget you must have 20 miles ready to go by April” So with that we took a bearing of the railway and headed North to this place called Valleyview. Mike was having trouble getting an ice bridge sturdy enough to carry his Cats and he finally decided he had enough ice to sloop them across but not to walk them. He got 2 long logs and some shorter ones and built a big stone boat. Then, with a pulley attached to a big tree on the first ride and hundreds of feet of cable he loaded the first cat and we all held our breath until it made the trip. After that it was just a case of pulling the sloop back and forth until we had them all across. I then decided it was time to make use of these wonderful aerial photographs and plot our route. That was my first disappointment. The method was to take 2 adjoining pictures, lay them side by side under a stereoscope and move them until you got a third dimension relief. The theory was great but the photography wasn’t as the pictures we taken at different angles and different altitudes and weren’t what I had hoped for. I had though I could lay them out on the cookhouse table, pick out muskegs, creeks, hills, etc., draw a line on them and away we’d go. It didn’t work, although I used them to pick out some creek crossing etc., and we were back to the old system of running trial lines and walking miles every day ahead of the surveyors. Survey went fairly well until we got to chickadee creek and I pulled my first blunder. I had picked out a good creek crossing – had the surveyors hand level through it- decided it would be OK, and told Mike to clear it before we had the detailed survey. Unfortunately when I started to design it wasn’t OK and would have required 3000 Ft of 8% grade which was unacceptable. In those days we were using wooden bridges with a maximum elevation above stream bed of I believe 34 Ft. By this time Mike had cleared another mile or so and rather than abandon that I decided to put in 2 dog legs and got enough distance to get the necessary grade. This was know as Beattie’s folly by many of my cohorts but I told them that some day the road would go straight through – and it did when the highway was 4 laned. With the advent of large multi-plate culverts it became possible to get much greater fill heights. Just as an aside I installed the first 14 Ft.