‘Glad to have the car back’: Car returned to owner after being trapped in Ottawa parkade for three weeks

Some Ottawa drivers have their vehicles back, three weeks after a downtown parking garage partially collapsed.

It’s a reunion Mae Whalen never thought she would have to make.

After three weeks, she took the train to Ottawa from Kingston to pick up her car after it was trapped inside a parkade that partially collapsed on Feb. 26.

“We’ve been waiting for over three weeks and, because we never could get eyes on it, it was about seeing it and making sure that there wasn’t damage,” Whalen said. “Happy to report, very dirty but no dents, no dings.”

Whalen’s vehicle was extracted from the parking garage on Slater Street Thursday. She was notified by a GWL Realty Advisors, the parkade’s ownership group, representative Wednesday.

She adds this is the first she heard from GWL in a couple of weeks.

“I understand these things don’t always go as anybody would like them to, but at the same time, communication’s always really, really important. Just to relieve anxiety.” Whalen added.

It’s the first step of a two-phase plan. Vehicles on the first three levels of the parking garage were removed Thursday and brought to Ottawa Metro Towing where a representative says they pulled around 32 cars.

“With the initial phase of vehicle removal complete, additional work will be completed in the coming days to facilitate the retrieval of vehicles that cannot be accessed through the ground floor exit,” the property owner told CTV News Ottawa in a statement.

Work for phase two is underway with crews building bridges to bring the cars on floors four to seven down one level at a time. This process is expected to take an additional two weeks.

For Whalen, she says she is happy to have her vehicle back, but adds the headaches are not over quite yet.

“What’s next is hopefully getting reimbursed for all of the expenses that we’ve continued to incur for three weeks straight, including a rental car,” Whalen said. “It’s a significant amount for anybody to carry these days.”