Residents of Cache Creek have had some welcome road relief recently, now that the Todd Road bridge has reopened to traffic, and they can soon look forward to smooth sailing on Highway 97, as work on the new Ministry of Transportation (MOTI) bridge over Cache Creek is nearing completion.
When the Journal spoke with Cache Creek CAO Damian Couture on Sept. 6, he reported that there had been a few hiccups on the Todd Road bridge project but that work was going well, and that the road would be passable by the end of September. An hour later he called back to say that the bridge had actually reopened to traffic that afternoon, well ahead of schedule.
“We had some permit issues, so we pivoted a little and made an alteration to the plan that shouldn’t change the cost,” he said. “[The bridge approaches] will eventually be paved, and we still have to put in some structurally required material, so it isn’t a fully complete project yet.”
Todd Road was hit hard by the May 2023 flooding in the village: the road on both sides of the bridge was washed out, and the bridge’s deck planking was affected. The reopening of the bridge means residents will be able to access the post office, and properties along Old Cariboo Road, much more easily and directly.
Another section of road that was badly affected by the 2023 floods was Highway 97 near the Dairy Queen, where it formerly passed over a culvert that was susceptible to flooding. A MOTI-funded project to replace the culvert with a four-lane bridge is drawing to a close, said Couture.
“They’ve just completed paving on the east side. They had temporary asphalt on the west side, and now that they’ve finished the east side they’re in the process of flipping to the other one. The east side just needs some road markings.
“My understanding of the project is that they’ll finish off the west side, then be planting trees and shrubs. They do have a vegetation plan, and already have topsoil on the west side, getting ready for planting.”
In other good news, new sidewalks near the Husky bridge on Highway 1 have been completed, a retaining wall on Stage Road has been rebuilt and the area will soon be repaved, and replacement of the concrete apron at the front of the fire hall is substantially complete.
At the back of the fire hall, where a large section of the upper level of the community hall parking lot was undermined by floodwater and washed away, engineers are discussing the best course of action. Couture explained that the project — like most of the other flood-related projects in the village — is largely being funded through the province’s Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) program, which pays approximately 90 per cent of the cost of the rebuilding.
“The program replaces ‘like for like’,” he said, which in the case of the parking lot would mean rebuilding the land and putting the parking lot on top as before. “We’re saying ‘Wait a minute, is that the best option?’ If we’re going to make changes to [the Cache Creek] corridor, maybe we should remove the debris and make it safe while we wait to figure out what the channel will be. We don’t want to have to move the channel after doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of work [on the parking lot]. We’re looking to make it safe in that area, and that’s currently under review.”
Re-aligning the channel of Cache Creek brings up the situation at Quartz Road, which was the area that took the brunt of the 2023 flooding. The culvert that was under Quartz Road has been removed, and access to and from Highway 1 has been cut off. Couture said that the village is still having regular conversations with different levels of government about what a crossing of Cache Creek at Quartz Road will look like.
“There’s not a lot to update there, sadly. It has to be two-phase project, and phase one is aligning the channel to where it needs to be so it won’t cause problems in the future. We can’t just throw a bridge over it if the channel isn’t correct, so we’re working with engineers to see what has to happen in that space to prevent what happened in 2023, or something worse, from happening again.”
Couture said that the village is working with MOTI and the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness to work out a plan. “We all have to deal with the consequences, so we’re all working together.”
He noted that while there are casual discussions about an actual crossing at Quartz Road and what they want to see there, nothing can be nailed down until they know what’s happening with the channel. A public survey revealed that most residents favoured construction of a three-lane road bridge, but that was done very soon after the flooding, and is not binding.
“When we’re closer to the idea of building a crossing we’ll probably poll again to see if there’s a change of sentiment.” Couture added that no matter what the solution ends up being, the village will likely have to play a part in terms of the cost.
“We’re not going to get a free crossing. We as a community need to evaluate what the options are, what the cost is, and what makes sense for the community. We’re having good conversations with other agencies, but we aren’t getting away with this for free. Even with DFA we pay 10 per cent, so if it’s a $5 million bridge and DFA is paying for it that’s $500,000 for Cache Creek. Can we afford it? That’s a conversation council needs to have.”
Couture noted that restructuring a waterway is a big project, and putting a bridge across it is also big. “It sounds simple, but it isn’t.
“We can’t have a fulsome discussion on a crossing until we know what’s happening with the channel. Normally, DFA funding would cover the ‘least-cost’ replacement, which would be a culvert, but we don’t feel that’s practical There are conversations to be had, ideas to proof out, and then we have to see what happens.”
