Sandstone Serenade

Have you been wondering about all that loud banging is from Notre Dame? It’s because they’ve uncovered a large block of sandstone near the west wing of the school and it needs to be broken up. The sound of this work is echoing off the school buildings and can be heard blocks away.

On August 14th, Pat Waslen, the Vice Chair of the ND Building Committee, said in a response to a resident’s complaint about the noise, “We had a similar situation in 2014 and it took almost 4 weeks to break apart the block and I am told this piece is much larger.”

The rock work started around the 7th of August, which means we may be experiencing the loud pounding into September.

Wilco Civil Inc., the company handling the construction project for Notre Dame, has permission from the City of Vancouver to work on Saturdays through August. In addition, they can work on two Saturdays in September, on the 12th and 26th.

It’s not clear how long the stadium/parking lot project is going to take. Original estimates were for work to wrap up by the end of 2020. However, a work stoppage in July for two weeks and now this large block of sandstone could extend that.

Notre Dame’s second “good neighbour” committee meeting is scheduled for August 27th. We could have a better idea of the construction timeline after that.

In the meantime, be ready for a lot more beeping and banging.