THUNDER BAY— Demolition of Victoriaville mall has begun.
The work started with the Victoria Avenue entrance on Monday morning.
While demolition is taking place, crews will be working extended hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., in accordance with city noise bylaws.
“The first thing they have done already is remove the front access off of Victoria Avenue, and so they will start to clear out as much as they can from within Victoriaville mall itself, the kiosks and such, and then once that's complete, they'll start to remove the roof and the steel beams,” said Kelvin Jankowski, manager of capital facilities construction for the City of Thunder Bay.
Jankowski said with the assistance of Finnway General Contractor, the demolition is expected to take two months.
“Once this is complete, they'll be moving on to doing facade work and they will work as long as they can on the street, water and sewer, whatever they can get done this year before everything freezes up, they'll get done, and then they will pick it back up in the spring,” he said.
Jankowski said in addition to the exterior being removed, parts of the mall's roof will be taken away with heavy equipment.
“The cranes and all these pieces are already in place, so as soon as the interior is cleared out, you'll start to see chunks of roof and steel members come off,” he said.
Finnway will be offloading the steel beams onto the Victoria Avenue side of the construction, where they will be dismantled, loaded onto trucks, and carried off for recycling, Jankowski said.
With the former shopping centre finally coming down, Jankowski said there is protective measures in place to keep the project on track.
“There's certainly always small things or unknown conditions that you come across, there is contingencies in place to handle that.
I don't think there is anything major that's taken place to date, so I think we are still good and on track,” he said.
The overall completion date for the project is set for June 2027, which includes all landscaping work, streetscaping, and amenities.
