Central Western Railway (CWR) was obligated to abandon 64 km of railway in the Alberta Plains region east
of Consort. This line was built in 1914. This was the first line to be abandoned under the new guidelines
proposed by Alberta Environmental Protection. This paper will present the experiences in planning the
reclamation, as at time of publication work was still ongoing. This paper will focus on the unique features of
reclamation in comparison to other linear developments, and discuss the application of Alberta
Environmental Protection's Draft Reclamation Criteria for Abandoned Railways. In effect, since the
reclamation is underway, this paper is but an interim report, and further experiences will be presented at
the conference.
The guidelines produced by Alberta· Environmental Protection accommodates the potential land use of
the ROW, contaminant variability, and the technical issues of shallow grades and pronounced cuts and
fills. In short it provides the operator and regulator sufficient adaptability to accommodate the unique
features of railways.