“Horrifying:” Speeding construction trucks create dangerous situations, reader writes

Calls to slow down in Manor Park project zone have been largely ignored

Dear Editor:

There is a disturbing reality unfolding daily on Merriman Avenue in Manor Park — one that residents should not ignore, and one that city officials can no longer afford to dismiss.

Cavanagh Construction, the contractor currently overseeing revitalization and road work in our neighbourhood, has repeatedly allowed its drivers to speed dangerously through residential streets densely populated with young children. This is not an isolated complaint. It is not a misunderstanding. It is a pattern.

Residents have called the company numerous times. Each time, speeds improve briefly — for a day, perhaps two — before the trucks resume barreling through the neighbourhood as though Merriman Avenue were an industrial corridor rather than a residential street lined with homes, strollers, bicycles, and toddlers.

On Merriman alone, there are numerous young children and babies playing outside throughout the day. Parents walk with infants. Children chase balls onto the road. Families garden, ride scooters, and gather at driveways. It is precisely the kind of quiet residential environment where drivers should exercise heightened caution.

Instead, many of these trucks travel at speeds that residents describe as horrifying.

But perhaps most alarming is not simply the speed — it is the response when residents plead for basic decency and restraint.

Who, in their right mind, argues with a mother standing roadside with multiple young children when she is begging them to slow down? She is not asking for nuclear launch codes, or demanding the impossible. She is pleading with someone operating a multi-ton vehicle through a residential neighbourhood to exercise the bare minimum of caution before someone is seriously injured — or worse, killed.

And yet, residents are being met not with accountability or professionalism, but with verbal hostility and intimidation from inside oversized construction vehicles.

That should outrage every resident of Manor Park.

Recklessness

This issue transcends inconvenience. This is not about noise. It is not about temporary disruption associated with infrastructure work. Most residents understand that revitalization projects come with dust, detours, and delays. We accept those realities because we value infrastructure investment and community improvement.

What we should never be expected to accept is recklessness.

Construction companies operating within residential communities have both a legal obligation and a moral responsibility to ensure their drivers respect the people living there. If repeated complaints have been made and behaviour continues unchanged, then the problem is no longer individual drivers. The problem is corporate culture and failed oversight.

Cavanagh Construction has now been warned repeatedly by residents. If the company cannot or will not control the conduct of its drivers, then the City of Ottawa must intervene directly.

Residents deserve to know: what enforcement mechanisms are currently in place? Are GPS speed logs being reviewed? Are subcontractors being disciplined? Has the city formally documented complaints? At what point does negligence become liability?

Because eventually, if nothing changes, this story will not be about speeding trucks.

It will be about a child.

Apply pressure

I am asking the Manor Park community to help apply pressure before tragedy forces accountability upon us. Please contact Cavanagh Construction directly at 613-257-2918 and demand immediate corrective action. Contact your city councilor at 613-580-2483. Document incidents. Record truck numbers. File complaints.

And if this behaviour continues, my next step will be to formally demand that the City halt operations until meaningful safety measures are implemented and enforced.

No infrastructure project is more important than the life of a child.

Erica Leslie