Onderdonk Section

CPR in BC

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Onderdonk Section

CPR Section

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The Onderdonk Section of the Canadian Pacific Railway is the section of the transcontinental railway built by Andrew Onderdonk under contract from the Canadian government. He built from Port Moody near Vancouver to Savona near Kamloops. After completing that section, under contract with the CPR, he built the section from Savona to Craigellachie in Eagle Pass where his crews met the CPR crews working from the east. This later section I refer to as the CPR Section.

The section of railroad up the Fraser and Canyons was some of the most difficult construction on the entire line. In the first 30 miles upstream from Yale, there were 20 tunnels through solid rock. There were numerous rock cuts and bridges.

The project was divided up into four subcontracts by the government. Onderdonk was the contractor for all four contracts (See Contracting Controversy). Construction started at Emory's Bar near Yale since that was the head of navigation on the Fraser River. The section between the ocean at Port Moody and Emory's Bar was not started until several years later. The four contracts were:

Contract	Location	Date Signed
60	Emory's Bar to Boston Bar	December 23, 1879
61	Boston Bar to Lytton	February 10, 1880
62	Lytton to Junction Flat	December 23, 1879
63	Junction Flat to Savona	December 15, 1879
92	Port Moody to Emory's Bar	1882

Related Information

• The Contract Controversy relates to the letting of Contract 92 and the unusual circumstances of how Onderdonk won the contract even though he was not the lowest bidder. There is also some uncertainty on how Onderdonk won Contract 61 as some of the early documents list Ryan, Goodwin & Co as the contractor.
• The role of Chinese Workers on the construction was a controversial aspect of the work.