The developer was allowed to get back into the construction site for the first time since the two partial collapses at a Welland condominium in the past month.
READ MORE: Welland luxury condo project partially collapses Saturday night
The developer was given permission by regulators to go back into the $55M condo site to start cleaning up debris from its two collapses.
On Feb. 18, parts of the south end of the building caved in. One week later, another collapse took place. The job now is to make things safe so the extent of the damage can be determined. The cause of the two collapses still isn’t known.
READ MORE: Welland condo collapses for the second time in over a week
The Ministry of Labour acknowledges its investigation, and told CHCH News, “as the investigation is ongoing, the ministry cannot comment further at this time,” and “the length of the investigation will depend on the complexity of the case.”
READ MORE: Ministry of Labour investigating Welland condo collapse
The developer says the debris cleanup is a major job, and then they’ll hear how much has to be rebuilt. There has been an ongoing debate in Welland about the cause of this collapse with some residents believing the condo is too close to the water.
Local Welland Canal historian Terry Hughes says there were problems along the canal when bridges were built there in the 1920s. Hughes says, “they noted there was an instability of the canal banks there.”
He says there’s a difficult kind of blue clay underground in the area, “in 1939 there was a major slippage of the land just north of those bridges and it was 500 feet slid right into the canal.”
READ MORE: Welland condo expected to start partial demolition next week
The developer tells CHCH News that the contractor who dug the foundation said it was on solid ground and inspectors apparently agreed.
The developer says they’re taking the situation day by day. The condo has more than 200 units and they are all sold. The developer says it is keeping buyers informed of what’s happening. The move-in date is October 2024 and they don’t know if or how long that will have to be extended.
