Duane Hicks
Not much of the Rainy Lake Hotel will be left standing after this weekend.
The 200 block of Scott Street will be closed to traffic tomorrow through Monday (Oct. 16-19) to ensure safety as JMX Contracting begins tearing down the front part of the old building.
Pedestrian traffic won’t be affected, nor will traffic through the intersections at Mowat and Portage Avenues.
JMX Contracting will start demolishing the east side of the front portion of the building and work west, Chief Building Official Travis Rob reported.
“Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, they’ll be taking the rest of the above-ground structure down,” he noted.
This will be followed by clean-up and backfilling the front portion of the basement, he added.
“Once all of the above-ground stuff is done and down, we’ll re-open the road again because the risk would be gone,” Rob explained.
But he added the parking spots and sidewalk directly in front of the hotel will remain closed while the site is cleaned up.
“There’s obviously a lot of clean-up that’s going to have to happen afterwards,” Rob stressed.
“There’s some site servicing that’s going to have to happen afterwards.
“All of things will be taking place still for a little bit,” he noted. “But essentially, by the end of the weekend, early next week, everything you can see pretty much should be gone.”
Demolition began early last week, with the back portion of the building now completely demolished, noted Rob.
This past weekend, the crew worked on cleaning out the basement at the rear of the building, he added.
JMX Contracting hauled out the wreckage from the site on Tuesday and yesterday, and also began backfilling the basement.
Rob said the basement will be backfilled prior to tomorrow’s road closure.
The contractor also has had crew members use a man-lift to remove some masonry from the upper northwest and northeast corners of the hotel over concerns about these parts crumbling and falling.
Rob said it’s best to remove these pieces by hand, in a controlled manner, before they fall on their own—endangering pedestrians or adjacent buildings.
As first reported last Thursday, the contractor also was able to remove the mural of the Noden Causeway on the east side of the dining room, as well as the mural of the mill on north wall of the “Mill Room.”
These have been shipped to Winnipeg to be reviewed and appraised.
“Once that’s been done, we’ll know if they can be refurbished and how much that’s going to cost,” said Rob.
“And, of course, make the decision based on that information on what our next step is.”
