Glebe Parking Garage (170 Second Ave) | 13.m | 4-5 fl | Completed

[J.OT13]

Leaking Glebe garage: City of Ottawa sues contractor and architects

Tom Spears
Postmedia
December 29, 2018


The Glebe parking garageAshley Fraser / Postmedia

The City of Ottawa is suing the contractor and architects who built a four-storey parking garage in the Glebe, claiming that the garage is prone to unacceptable leaking.

The city is asking for $1.75 million in damages from Laurin General Contractor, Architecture 49 Inc. and PBK Architects.

The municipal garage on Second Avenue west of Bank Street has 141 spaces and was built to provide parking for Lansdowne. The city’s claim says poor waterproofing on the top level allowed water to leak into electrical conduits, service panels and wall joints, causing damage to the electrical systems, lights, security cameras, parked vehicles and concrete.

The work was done in late 2015 using a neoprene membrane under the asphalt. The garage opened in 2016, and the city document says leakage started to appear during the first winter of operation.

Dennis Laurin, the president of the contracting firm, said he was surprised to hear of the lawsuit on Saturday. He acknowledged there is a leaking problem.


The Glebe parking garageAshley Fraser / Postmedia

“There is a performance issue specifically with a membrane there on the top floor. That’s really the core problem,” he said.

“We, as constructors, are responsible for corralling men and machines to deliver” on the contract, “and the material is not fit for purpose,” he said.

“The city and consultant and us, we all recognize that and we are working to correct it. That is why I’m very, very surprised that litigation has been initiated.”


The Glebe parking garageAshley Fraser / Postmedia

He said that while his company wants to find a solution without legal action, “litigation is a process to get everybody to pay attention to a situation and apply some urgency to it.”

But he said that “all parties are working to get that resolved.”

Representatives from the city were not able to be reached for comment.

None of the claims in the statement of claim have been proven in court. The Laurin Group and the architects have not yet filed a statement of defence.

https://ottawasun.com/news/local-new...0-1913657a1f36

[dougvdh]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

(article about lawsuit)

Great, a lawsuit over a parking garage that probably shouldn't have been built in the first place. Like staff originally anticipated, the use numbers don't support the expense taken.

There are few times that the previous surface parking lot wouldn't have met the parking demand: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...2q4/edit#gid=0

[Ottawa Champ]

Are there and reports available that show the total revenue this lot has taken in?

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by Ottawa Champ

Are there and reports available that show the total revenue this lot has taken in?

Not much and probably operating at a loss. I mean why would people park there if they can park on Bank or on side streets for free.

I've been scrapping statistics since August: 170 Second Ave

Most of the time sits empty.
During weekdays fills to about 50% for few hours.
On Redblacks game days fills to 100% for 3-4 hours.

[CityTech]

The city needs to get rid of on-street parking on Bank.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by dougvdh

Great, a lawsuit over a parking garage that probably shouldn't have been built in the first place. Like staff originally anticipated, the use numbers don't support the expense taken.

There are few times that the previous surface parking lot wouldn't have met the parking demand: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...2q4/edit#gid=0

Part of the problem is the parking restrictions applied to the garage. I went to use it once, and from my interpretation it had a 2 hour time limit.

[Davis137]

Originally Posted by CityTech

The city needs to get rid of on-street parking on Bank.

I concur...

[LarryW]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Part of the problem is the parking restrictions applied to the garage. I went to use it once, and from my interpretation it had a 2 hour time limit.

I believe the 2 hour limit is for the 1st and 2nd levels. I believe the 3rd and 4th levels have a longer limit.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by LarryW

I believe the 2 hour limit is for the 1st and 2nd levels. I believe the 3rd and 4th levels have a longer limit.

I've never used it, but in the post above there is a picture that says exactly that: Levels 1 and 2 are 2 hours max; levels 3 and 4 are all day.

[OTownandDown]

I don't understand either your calculus or the spreadsheet I guess.

The spreadsheet shows a capacity of 146 spaces, and every day there's at least 123 spaces taken. This seems pretty good to me...

Also I think the numbers for 210 Gloucester are wrong. There are five levels of parking, and only two are for public parking (~100 spaces) and the spreadsheet shows 213 spaces (which includes the private parking)

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Not much and probably operating at a loss. I mean why would people park there if they can park on Bank or on side streets for free.

I've been scrapping statistics since August: 170 Second Ave

Most of the time sits empty.
During weekdays fills to about 50% for few hours.
On Redblacks game days fills to 100% for 3-4 hours.

[dougvdh]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

I don't understand either your calculus or the spreadsheet I guess.

The spreadsheet shows a capacity of 146 spaces, and every day there's at least 123 spaces taken. This seems pretty good to me...

Also I think the numbers for 210 Gloucester are wrong. There are five levels of parking, and only two are for public parking (~100 spaces) and the spreadsheet shows 213 spaces (which includes the private parking)

The chart shows spaces available, not taken. Basically, if the chart shows a number higher than 96 for Second Avenue, the previous surface lot would have met the demand.

[dougvdh]

Here's what the planning report said about the need for this garage (April 3, 2013):

"Based on the results of the Local Area Parking Study demand for the structure may be reached by 2031. Normally staff would recommend the construction of the parking garage at 170 Second Avenue be deferred until the need for the facility has been demonstrated and the impact of the Lansdowne redevelopment is more fully known."

[acottawa]

It is a great place to park. It is way easier to get to than the Landsdowne garage and way easier than driving around trying to park on the street. I think the pay before policy turns a lot of people off because you have to try to guess how long you want to stay in the glebe. A pay after system would be better.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I've never used it, but in the post above there is a picture that says exactly that: Levels 1 and 2 are 2 hours max; levels 3 and 4 are all day.

Ahh. Nice to know. I missed that sign when trying to park there once (only saw the signs on the spaces on levels 1 and 2 so gave up and went somewhere else).

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by acottawa

It is a great place to park. It is way easier to get to than the Landsdowne garage and way easier than driving around trying to park on the street. I think the pay before policy turns a lot of people off because you have to try to guess how long you want to stay in the glebe. A pay after system would be better.

Pretty ridiculous considering it was built for Lansdowne, where there is no way to know when concerts, festivals and sporting events will end.

[rocketphish]

City buying new waterproofing for leaky Glebe parkade as lawsuits linger

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: 10 minutes ago • 3 minute read



A four-year-old municipal parking garage with a leaky roof will see its faulty waterproofing ripped out this year as the city and its contractors continue a legal fight to determine whose fault it is.

The City of Ottawa is collecting bids on the waterproofing do-over on the upper deck and ramp of the Second Avenue parkade in the Glebe, anticipating that the work will be done in the coming months to protect the structure.

Asked how much money the city estimates it will take to do the job over, the city cited the active lawsuit in declining to comment.

The city built the 144-spot open-air parking garage largely because it worried about motorists overwhelming parking capacity at the redeveloped Lansdowne Park. The four-storey parking garage cost the city $9.5 million to build and the structure replaced a surface lot.

The parkade opened in 2016. The first winter of operations exposed the structure’s vulnerability.

After realizing the shoddy waterproofing was leading to significant damage in the structure, the city called their lawyers and in 2018 launched a $1.75-million lawsuit against the companies that designed and built the parkade.

Allegations in court documents haven’t been tested in front of a judge.

The parkade has cost more than the city anticipated because of the remediation studies and litigation handled by the city’s external lawyers.

The city commissioned a report on potential hazardous building materials in the structure to inform contractors doing the remediation work this year. There have been other studies, too, on the cause of the leaking, according to court documents.

What doesn’t seem to be in dispute is the fact that the waterproofing doesn’t work, but there are questions raised through the litigation about the design and type of waterproofing product the city required for the job.

One of the defendants has filed a statement of defence turning the tables on the city and other defendants.

The document filed by Laurin General Contractors says the company followed the specifications produced by project consultant and co-defendant WSP Group, but the waterproofing product’s suitability for the roof level of a parking garage was questioned during the tendering process.

An “alternative and more conventional product” was submitted for approval but rejected by the project architect, and co-defendant, Architecture 49, according to Laurin’s statement.

The contract-specified waterproofing product was installed and covered with asphalt in November 2015.

The Laurin court filing references an engineering report commissioned by the city that says the type of waterproofing membrane installed on the roof of the parkade seemed to be the first of its kind not only in Ottawa, but in other areas with similar weather exposure.

Laurin has also filed crossclaims against the co-defendants and a counterclaim against the city.

WSP Group said Monday it has a policy of not commenting on pending litigations.

Architecture 49 also cited the litigation in declining to comment.

Meanwhile, city taxpayers have a leaky parking garage on their hands. The city has little choice but to protect its new asset from deteriorating, regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome.

According to the pricing schedule in the tender documents, the work to replace the waterproofing includes removing the concrete and asphalt overlays, taking out and reinstalling 50 vehicle barriers and pulling out the existing waterproofing membrane. The contractor will have to repair cracks in the concrete, install 186 square metres of new sidewalk, install 50 metres of new curbs and remove and reinstall a couple of parking ticket machines.

The city is requiring the contractor to make the lower levels of the parkade available to the city while the repairs are happening.

Susan Johns, the city’s manager of design and construction for facilities, said the project is expected to be done by the end of 2020.

The tender documents list a completion date of Oct. 30.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-4b90fde3fb3f/

[TransitZilla]

^ Another Genivar / WSP success story!

[harls]

That'll happen when salty water drips on enough Jags.