Mae Whelan of Kingston got her car back Thursday, but the wait has continued for other vehicle owners.
Mae Whalen’s 24-day ordeal to finally retrieve her trapped Chevy Volt has ended happily.
Whalen’s car, which had sat on the bottom level of the 400-spot Slater Street parkade that partially collapsed on Feb. 25, was towed out of danger on Thursday. After making a train trek to Ottawa from her Kingston home, Whalen was finally able to drive the car home on Friday afternoon.
“It was on the bottom level, so it was one of the first that got out,” Whalen said in a telephone interview Saturday. “It appears to be okay. It was two cars away from where the (parking garage) collapsed, but there doesn’t look like there’s any damage. There are no dents.”
Whalen’s story is one example of the long haul for vehicle owners since the frightening collapse occurred. The upper roof of the structure collapsed, likely due to the amount of snow piled on top of it. Large slabs of concrete and a huge chunk of the top wall tumbled to the ground.
Fortunately, there were no injuries.
The City of Ottawa originally closed off streets surrounding the site, on Slater Street just west of O’Connor Street. Two days after the collapse, a controlled demolition was performed to remove the ramps.
It has since been a long, agonizing wait for the owners of the 50-odd vehicles that were trapped inside for more than three weeks. While most, including Whalen’s car, were removed this past week, a few vehicles remained inside the structure Satuday.
In the light rain of an otherwise sleepy downtown Saturday morning, construction workers were busy building a large scaffolding structure next to the garage, presumably with the intention of building a new ramp to retrieve remaining vehicles.
Evening Update
There has been no update on when the last of the cars will be removed.
Calls to GWL Realty Advisors, owners of the parking garage, were not returned Saturday.
Whalen feels sympathy for those who still don’t have their vehicles.
She said GWL officials began sending emails a week ago, saying they were hoping to get confirmation from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour that the removal of the vehicles would be happening. There was an exchange of emails throughout the week regarding exactly when tow trucks would be getting to work.
Come Thursday, the vehicles were trucked out in 15-minute intervals. Whalen’s car was towed to a parking lot.
“Tuesday came and went, Wednesday came and went and then there was another email,” she said. “I couldn’t get there on Thursday, so I picked it up (Friday). I think we have it better off than some other folks, who live on the other side of Toronto.”
She originally drove her car to Ottawa to attend a conference.
When she first learned of the collapse, she was offered an opportunity to sign a voluntary expense form to cover the costs of the headache. Uncomfortable with signing off on a few things, she waited.
GWL has said that all “reasonable expenses” will be covered. In Whalen’s case, that includes a train ride to Kingston after the parking garage’s collapse, an Uber ride to the train station and the train trip back to Ottawa on Friday.
“My plan this weekend is to submit all the expenses, hoping for a quick turnaround,” she said.
Ann Burchell also had her car towed out of the damaged parking lot this past week. In an email message to the Ottawa Sun on Saturday, she said she had since had the car towed to her mechanic to make sure that it was still safe to drive.
The parking structure was built in 1989, but had not been inspected since. City of Ottawa officials have said maintenance of the property, which has been owned by GWL since 2003, is the responsibility of the property owners.
Back in 2003, there was a proposal to remove the parking structure and build two towers on the site. That development never occurred, but last June the city approved another project to build towers of 25 and 26 storeys on the spot.
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