The City of Williams Lake is looking to retrieve and remove damaged bridges in the River Valley caused by the 2020 flood.
The total cost for this project is $51,500 with the City’s total share cost being $10,300. The rest will be coming from the Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA).
“The goal of the bridge retrieval project is to remove the bridges that are currently sitting next to the River Valley trail, and these bridges can’t be reused.” says Natalie Swift, Recovery Coordinator for the City of Williams Lake.
“However, these bridges still could be used for any number of other applications, so the city is retrieving and selling them.”
Swift listed off the benefits of this project, which is having the restoration of the River Valley trail, and selling the bridges gives new life to infrastructure that may otherwise have been thrown away.
“The City is repairing or replacing more than 20 bridges in the River Valley. Three permanent bridges have already been installed, south of the commerce street entrance to the valley, and work is currently underway to install 14 new bridges leading up to the Fraser River.”
Preparations are also underway to restore a few additional bridges, which includes a bike bridge to access the west side trail network.
Swift says the goal to open the River Valley is as soon as possible.