Kevin Witzke’s path to the job of leader for the design of the redeveloped Myra Canyon trestles is one that has taken him from the classrooms of Okanagan College more than a quarter century ago, around the world as a Civil Engineering Technology graduate and finally to an undertaking that combined his education, experience, and his love of railways and history.

KEVIN WITZKE - Class of '81

For the past four years, Witzke has been overseeing the design and rebuild of the historic trestles on the former Kettle Valley Railway, in his role with Earth Tech Canada Ltd.’s Kelowna office. They were destroyed in the catastrophic 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire, which consumed 239 homes and burned about 250 square kilometers of forest.

For Witzke, the concept of being involved in the reconstruction of those trestles was a temptation to great to resist.
After graduating from Civil Engineering Technology at Okanagan College in 1981, he had gone to work for the City of Revelstoke for three years. Then he joined CP Rail where he worked for three years with the department responsible for structures, such as trestles and bridges.

“I’ve always liked the railway,” says Witzke, who says his love of building things led him to enroll in the College’s engineering technologies department. In 1987 he moved to Kelowna and joined Reid Crowther, eventually becoming a partner in the firm. Reid Crowther became part of Earth Tech in 2000. In the past 21 years with the firm, Witzke’s job has taken him to China, Bangkok, Norway and Australia, as well as various parts of North America on project work.

On his office wall, there’s a photo of Witzke atop an elephant on his way to a jobsite in the far east.
“There have been no roadblocks along the way,” says Witzke, crediting the college’s credential with creating opportunities for a rich and rewarding career. “After I graduated high school in 1978 I went to UVic to take astronomy, but I came to the conclusion that it was a hobby, not a career for me. As a kid, I’d always liked to build things. When it rained, we’d build dams in ditches. So I decided to turn that interest into a career.”

The two-year Civil Engineering Technology diploma was the result, although when he enrolled it was into the Civil and Construction Technology program – the name changed part way through the program. (The college now offers five engineering technology programs: civil, network and telecommunications; electronic, mechanical as well as water quality and environmental.)
“Four or five people who graduated from the College’s civil program now work in our office,” says Witzke. And over the years, he has had the chance to work with several former instructors either as colleagues in the firm or as consultants.

This weekend, as the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society celebrates the grand re-opening of the historic portion of the KVR, Witzke will be on hand, recalling the challenges and successes of the past four years as contractors, colleagues and volunteers worked from both ends of the canyon to reconstruct an engineering marvel.

Beside seeing the trestles reborn, Witzke has also taken a great deal of pleasure in working with historian Maury Williams and anthropologist Richard Garvin and their students as they’ve researched the trestles and canyon.

“I’m a bit of a history buff and I like the railway, so they came together perfectly. We’re really privileged to have this opportunity.”