Damage to the Todd Road Bridge over the Bonaparte River in Cache Creek (Photo via Wendy Coomber)

The village of Cache Creek is still in the midst of rebuilding after significant flooding last year.

Mayor John Ranta says the village is hoping to get some grants and disaster relief funding as its recovery plan has an estimated price tag between $5-million and $10-million.

“Council sat down and looked at the list, I think there was 26 projects of items that had been damaged by the flood and that is just village infrastructure,” he said. “We prioritized them in urgent, or high priority, or medium or low priority.”

Ranta says one of the projects deemed higher priority is the replacement of a culvert along Quartz Road, near the village fire hall.

“We haven’t totally decided what to pursue there but we did do a public survey and the vast majority of people that were surveyed suggested that we need a bridge there.”

Ranta says unlike a new bridge on Highway 97 – which the province is paying for – this work will be paid for by local taxpayers.

“The administrator when I was talking to him a week ago, he said it was between $5-and $10-million but if the one across Highway 97 is costing just over $5-million, I can’t imagine a narrower bridge and a shorter bridge costing more than that.”

The replacement of the Todd Road bridge that is the main route to the Cache Creek post office is another “major project” that Ranta hopes to see completed in the near future.

“It was completely eroded away with the water that was flowing [which] took out the entrance and the exit to the bridge,” Ranta said. “We’ve got a walking bridge which is a lot better than it used to be, having to go way down to Star House restaurant and all the way up old Cariboo Road.”

“I think there is an initiative to fill in the entrance and exit to the bridge and pave over top of it and get that restored back to pre-flood conditions.”

The list of damaged infrastructure in Cache Creek also includes the Fire Hall, broken water mains, sewage plant issues, two flooded parks, and broken irrigation systems.