Construction at the campus station has led to several sleepless nights for many golden triangle residents.
Dawn Christensen has lived in the area for more than two decades without any major noise complaints. She says construction is common, but this week's LRT work has been almost unbearable.
"It was a jackhammer and went all night. It kept me awake all night," Christensen says.
The long-time resident says the overnight drilling started around 8:00 pm Monday and continued throughout the work week.
"Depending on where you live, yes it is very annoying, " Christensen says.
The noise stems from LRT work to demolish the old campus bus station to make room for the new LRT campus station.
Neighbourhood councillor Catherine McKenney tried to help but was told by the city she couldn't reverse the crews' noise exemption. The work is happening in Rideau-Vanier, a ward represented by Mathieu Fleury.
"I didn't have the ability to lift that exemption and unfortunately we had four or five nights where people weren't sleeping; their kids weren't sleeping," McKenney says.
McKenney says she inquired about the permit after receiving dozens of complaints from constituents.
"We can't go back into this next week or the week after with more work throughout the night," she says. "We have to find a different way."
Councillors McKenney and Fleury are meeting with the light rail transit office this week to discuss the noise complaints and ways forward. Although he understands why residents are upset, Fleury says overnight construction is crucial to getting the pedestrian tunnel to the University of Ottawa re-opened by August 22nd.
"There are always those challenging periods when you have to do overnight work for different reasons" Fleury says, adding that existing lane reductions and buses on Nicholas Street make daytime work more difficult.
Fleury says he will look into other construction options such as having crews start immediately after rush hour, or working for shorter periods of time at night.
