By Andrea Bérubé
Downtown traffic woes continue but commuters, residents and merchants seem to be taking it all in stride.
Construction crews set up shop last week to begin sewer work on the east side of Elgin Street between Laurier Avenue and Queen Street as the region enters the final phase of its Restore the Core revitalization project.
Elgin Street northbound is down to one lane while there is a reduction in the number of turning lanes from Elgin onto Laurier.
Commuters, however, seem to have quickly adapted to the disruption, says Barry Townsend, project manager for the capital works engineering branch.
“The first day there was quite a bit of congestion when we started construction at the intersection but within a couple of days it seems that people have found alternate routes,” he says.
Merchants in the area are making the best of a difficult situation and say it’s all just a matter of patience.
Tony Langiano of Tony’s Tailoring near the corner of Laurier and Elgin isn’t worried the construction will have much impact on his clientele.
“Really, the customers work downtown and come in to me at lunchtime,” he says.
“They just complain about the road, but it really doesn’t affect me too much.”
Dave Stefaniuk, manager of the Second Cup on Elgin Street, says he isn’t really anticipating anything to change now or in the upcoming summer months. “Most of our business is all walk-by traffic anyway and people from other local businesses,” he explains.
However, the National Arts Centre is feeling the effects of the construction.
Kelly Ann Beaton, spokesperson for the National Arts Centre, says the NAC is currently having the most difficulty dealing with the roadblock because it blocks principal access points to parking facilities.
“All our efforts are directed to ensuring our patrons have the least inconvenience possible,” she says.
“We have made sure all our parking people are readily available to assist in any way and advise all patrons entering parking points.”
Townsend says representatives from the region meet every two weeks with representatives from the NAC, the NCC, as well as people from the cycling and pedestrian communities to keep them up-to-date on what’s happening and the duration of the work.
“Hopefully, with all those people thinking about this we can take care of everybody’s needs as best we can throughout that whole area,” says Townsend.
Donald Blakslee, manager of the Lord Elgin Hotel, says he isn’t looking forward to the day when the crews cross over and start digging on the west side of the street directly in front of his hotel but the end result will be worth it.
“I suppose there will be some problems but the Chateau Laurier got through it and it was a lot worse there than it is here, so hopefully we’ll survive too,” he says.
The Elgin Street project will cost approximately $4.8 million and work is slated to be finished by December so there will be no construction during millennium celebrations.