Mizrahi (1445-1451 Wellington St W) Construction Information

As many of you are aware, construction has begun at 1445-1451 Wellington St West, the site of the Mizrahi project. We hosted a pre-construction meeting earlier this Fall, but unfortunately at that time some details were still in the process of being determined between Mizrahi and the City. In the weeks that have followed, our office has coordinated meetings between Mizrahi, the City, and the community association and neighbours in order to finalize those details. We are now in a solid position to present the information as a whole.

In the Spring, Mizrahi began to discuss their construction staging options with our office. At that time, there were two options proposed, neither of which had been commented on by Traffic Management. Option 1 saw the sidewalk and a lane on Wellington St West being closed. Option 2 saw the parklette area being used as the construction staging area, which would require the trees to be cut down. Both options had pros and cons. Ultimately the potential pedestrian impacts as a result of Option 1 were concerning, and Option 2 was reviewed in more detail. Further, Traffic Management eventually weighed in on the two options. Under existing traffic volumes, Traffic Management can’t permit a PM peak lane closure. As well, based on the pedestrian detouring length, there is concern about pedestrian safety around major heavy vehicle activity. Ultimately Traffic Management was unable to support Option 1 due to the impacts to pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles and potential capacity issues on Wellington St W.

Therefore Option 1 was reviewed in finer detail. Initially, Mizrahi requested to install a gate off of Rockhurst (Gate 3). This was discussed during our community meeting recently. At the time, Mizrahi had not received formal permission from the City to do so, nor had Traffic Management evaluated the details of this gate access. Initially, Mizrahi was proposing to only use Gate 3 after the excavation period, for the delivery of rebar, the one-time elevator delivery and window deliveries every few weeks. However, after further discussion with Traffic Management, the following has been determined (feel free to reference the Logistics Plan attached below):

• All excavation activity will be from Wellington, using Gate 1 and Gate 2.
• All deliveries on 54ft trailers (rebar, elevator, etc) are to be staged from Wellington Westbound, in the single curb lane during hours acceptable to Traffic Management based on requirements and adjacent construction. This will include short intermittent closures of the sidewalk only during lifting of this material facilitated by flag-people on either side. The walk-through scaffolding will remain at all other times to maintain pedestrian access. Traffic Management will provide Mizrahi with the acceptable hour limitations at a later date and they will abide.
• Concrete pours due to constructability must be staged from the parklette due to two trucks being required in parallel and the timeline requirements of this work. Traffic Management is requesting that access be from Wellington into Gate 2, and exit onto Rockhurst, towards Scott. This will prevent concrete trucks from queuing in the local neighborhood and also eliminates any truck turning radii concerns with the proximity of the signal at Island Park and Wellington.

Changes to the parklette:

• Since the existing trees are no longer able to be retained, in order to facilitated the construction staging area, the park redesign has been undertaken. Please find attached below the concept plan for the park redesign. While we are disheartened to see the trees go, the new park design allows for more greenspace, which we hope will be welcomed by the community. The general concepts for the park remain, which include welcoming seating areas and a unique water feature.
• One Bell box will be relocated in order to facilitate the construction staging area.
• The remaining 3 Bell boxes may be wrapped in an artistic, vinyl wrapping. If there is opportunity for public input into this, we will consult with the community.

Additional:

• At our recently community meeting, Mizrahi gave out a Logistics Plan with the high-level construction phasing information. That plan has been updated to reflect all of the above information, please find it attached below.  
• Finally, construction has already begun but will get underway in earnest now that these details have been confirmed. The community can expect to see the trees in the parklette being removed this week.

Communication:

• Our office can send out construction updates, as they are given to us by Mizrahi. Please e-mail Fiona.Mitchell@Ottawa.ca if you would like to receive regular construction updates.
• For construction issues, please don’t hesitate to call our office to discuss further. Alternatively, you can call 3-1-1 and then e-mail us the Service Request number you receive so we can follow-up with the issue.
• If you want to reach Mizrahi directly for any reason, you can reach out to them via 1451Wellington@mizrahidevelopments.ca.