Rideau construction taking a Toll

Posted by The Gridlock on Dec 2, 2014 in Third Edition | Comments Off on Rideau construction taking a Toll

By Priscilla Hwang

 

It’s noisy. It’s dusty. It’s messy.

That’s how Brian Wilson, manager of Nestlé Toll House Café on Rideau Street, describes the unpleasant construction that has been disrupting his new business.

Rideau Street is a major transit line for pedestrians, buses, and cars in Ottawa. Rideau Centre, on the busy thoroughfare, is an important hub for people travelling to and from their destinations.

Both the mall and street have been undergoing major reconstruction this past year.

“It’s a little inconvenient when you’re trying to get into and out of the Rideau Centre,” said Jessica Muus, a student at University of Ottawa who travels through the mall on her way to and from class. “The doors are often blocked off and the bus stops crowded.”

The street construction began in March and the mall has been going through a series of projects since October 2013.

John Pilon is a construction worker who’s been working in Rideau Centre for the past six months.

“We do a lot of night work. If it’s noisy we have to do it after hours,” he said. “We start from 9:30 at night to 6 o’clock in the morning,” Pilon said.

But walking in and around the mall mid-morning, the noise is still obtrusive.

 

 

“It’s very loud,” said Jason Sousa. He’s been using transportation through Rideau Street for three years now. “I’ve got to admit it’s not very pleasant being around this area, but once I get on the bus, I don’t think about it anymore. You just have to go through it you know?”

Sousa also called the construction “visual pollution.”

Wilson agrees.

“It’s a visual distraction for a lot our customers,” he said. “Looking outside, we have dumpsters right beside us. They’re dumping loads and loads of garbage down every hour.”

Nestlé Toll House Café had its grand opening in November.

“It’s kind of a catch-22 because we’re excited to have a new location and it’s a flagship location,” said Wilson. But he said it hurts that the construction “is right beside us.”

Employees mop up the floors of the café every hour from the dust brought in by customers, said Wilson. “People are tracking in dust from the construction site, and not from walking on it but just from the sidewalks.”

“It’s a very attractive, clean place,” said John Petrolias, who decided to try Nestlé Toll House Café Tuesday. “But there’s a problem. Not only does the construction look ugly, but it makes it hard to walk around especially when it snows or rains.”

For business owners like Wilson, the construction is more than just a noisy nuisance. He deals with customer complaints and his business suffers.

“It’s also a traffic concern. What I’m finding is that we have buses turning, a lot of trucks unloading right outside our store here,” he said. “It’s chasing a lot of customers away.”

 

Officially, construction on Rideau Street will end on Dec. 5, according to a spokesperson from Coun. Mathieu Fleury’s office.

Substantial construction underground has been completed and landscaping and street furniture (like benches, streetlamps, and bus stops) will be installed mid-December, Fleury’s spokesperson said.

But that still leaves overhead hydro wires to be removed in January, hydro poles that will be removed in the spring, and finally sidewalk replacements after that, according to Fleury’s office.

“We get a lot of tourists in here as well and I’m almost surprised that they ventured this far up Rideau Street because if I was in their shoes, I might get to the mall but I certainly wouldn’t walk past it when I see the walls and walls of covered sidewalk,” said Wilson.

Construction on the Rideau Centre will continue until 2016.

“Construction is a dusty business,” said Wilson. “It’ll be nice when it’s done.”