Construction will begin shortly

​The GDNA sub-committee dealing with development at 51 Camden Street (for the Ace Hotel) met with the construction team for Alterra on August 18th.   Construction will begin shortly. 
The shoring phase will begin in October.  Fencing (hoarding) will be erected around the perimeter, on the property line, with an opening on the diagonal at the corner of Camden and Brant to permit truck entry to the property.  Flagmen will be on duty to ensure that traffic and pedestrians move through that intersection safely.  Alterra has determined that large trucks will need to approach from Brant Street since the turn at Spadina and Camden is too tight.  There will be a secondary opening at the north-east corner of the property but that will be used for smaller vehicles which are capable of making that tight turn onto Camden.
Excavation will follow in January, possibly February.  At that time the sidewalk on the east side of Brant Street will be covered with a pedestrian walkway.  On the south side of Camden Street, the existing sidewalk will be assimilated into the construction site and another covered pedestrian walkway will be extended into the street … resulting in a loss of the current traffic lane.  However, parking will be prohibited on the north side of the street to allow for a normal vehicular flow.
These changes will be considered at Toronto and East York Community Council on September 7 … the notice is available here, a diagram is available here.
Once activity begins at this site, the Site Manager and two others will be on site on workdays.  Work will probably start at 7am and continue until 3 or 4pm on most days.  There may be the need for an occasional late day or Saturday (when work will begin after 9am per the City bylaws).  A 24-hour phone number will be posted at the site but will also be found here when it is made available to us.
Understandably the sub-committee team raised concerns about mud tracking, idling trucks, waiting construction vehicles parked/stopped on Brant Street, and the potential for increased street parking caused by workers at the site.  Assurances were given and these concerns will, of course, be monitored.  One raised issue was resolved within the week: it was anticipated that construction hoarding would reduce visibility to traffic turning from Camden to Brant so Alterra erected a convex mirror to facilitate safe turns (per the image below).
Alterra is facing a tight schedule as it needs to finish construction by April 2018 in order for the owners to prepare the site for commercial activity (rumour has it TIFF activity) by the fall.