New Westminster city council wants assurances that work on the Provincial Courthouse in New Westminster won’t be too disruptive to neighbours.
Signia Construction Ltd. applied for an exemption to the city’s construction noise bylaw, which would allow it to do construction work outside of the city’s regular construction hours. A staff report said the project includes repairs to the deteriorating roof and installation of exterior insulation and cladding that will increase energy efficiency of the courthouse.
A July 10 report to council included a staff recommendation that the exemption to the construction noise bylaw be approved from Aug. 1 to Nov. 1, 2023. The report, however, noted that construction is anticipated to occur within 100 metres of more than 400 residential units for a period of up to 18 months.
“I’m concerned this is a long term period for a lot of people,” said Mayor Patrick Johnstone. “So just want to get a better sense of what mitigation approaches we will be able to take if this ends up becoming a challenge and we start hearing a lot from the public on this.”
Johnstone noted that other institutions, such as city hall, Royal Columbian Hospital and Douglas College, have continued to operate while construction is taking place at their facilities. He questioned why construction at the courthouse isn’t scheduled during the day.
The request to city hall was to allow work to be done from 8 to 11 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on alternating Sundays. No work is proposed to be done on Saturday nights or on statutory holidays.
Diane Merenick, the city’s manager of integrated services, said staff has been working with Signia Construction Ltd. She said the original request for an exemption to the construction noise bylaw was to from 8 p.m. to midnight five days a week, plus every Saturday and Sunday.
“This (new construction schedule) was a compromise that they made based on what they felt they needed to do to accommodate the noise in the courtrooms, to keep the noise out of the courtrooms and to look at security in terms of not having people walking through areas that might be secure where there is sensitive information and things like that,” she said.
Engin Tur, project manager at Signia Construction Ltd., said the courthouse must remain active and function normally during the entire project.
“So, any work related to this project, in terms of circulation or noise, creating noise that may cause disturbances in the building, must be done after hours or in the weekends,” he told council. “This is the limitation we were given at the very beginning of the tender process, and we had to obey and accept the terms.”
Tur said the company must return the building “to its original state” after every working day, as the courthouse will be open the following morning. As a result, he said, work taking place after around 10 p.m. will largely be related to cleaning up and making “everything as it was” for the next day’s courthouse opening.
“At the later stages of the night, we prefer not to create any kind of noise,” he said. “But it’s good to have the exemption because we’re talking construction, and accidentally we may create some noise.”
Coun. Ruby Campbell also expressed concern about impact on neighbours.
“There’s a lot of people living close by there,” she said, “so I’m also concerned.”
Campbell questioned if construction could begin in September, so people could comfortably keep their windows open and sit on their patios during the summer.
Tur said noise is unavoidable because “it’s construction” but he assured council the contractor would minimize noise in the later part of the evening as much as possible. He said “noise-creating” construction activities aren’t expected to begin until September.
In an effort to keep tabs on the project’s impacts on neighbours, council asked that staff report back on the project so they can discuss any construction challenges or impacts.
In a unanimous vote, council amended staff’s recommendation to allow the noise exemption to go until Jan. 31, 2024 (instead of Nov. 1, 2023, as recommended by staff), at which time the need for a construction noise exemption would be reviewed.
The Record reached out to staff for clarification on the dates of the noise exemption, as the exemption approved by council is for a longer period of time than had been recommend by staff.
“Staff considers multiple factors when making a recommendation to council. Council may accept that recommendation or collaborate on another more suitable for our community. In this instance, council deemed six months to be a reasonable timeframe to assess the construction impacts on the neighbourhood,” Merenick said in an email to the Record. “Staff will report back to council in January 2024.”
