Crews began tearing down part of an Ottawa building Tuesday that partially collapsed in October, leading the city to close a downtown intersection for more than seven weeks.

The work was to quickly address the safety concerns about Somerset House, the heritage brick building on the southeast corner of Bank and Somerset streets and "remove the hazardous condition" that led to the street closure, said a City of Ottawa news release Monday evening.

The partial demolition of Somerset House was done with machinery as the building remained unsafe to enter.
(Ann Godbold)

The first step is the demolition of the east side of the building, starting with the roof. That is being done using machines as the building is not safe to enter, the release said.

After that, engineers will assess the building's foundations and decide whether further demolition is required.

Only then will engineers be able to provide an estimate of how long further work may take and when the intersection might reopen, the city said.

The plan was put together by the city, the building's owner and heritage engineer John G. Cooke.

After the east side of the building is torn down, engineers will asses the foundation and decide whether further demolition is required.
(CBC)

Somerset House partially collapsed on Oct. 19. Since then, the city has kept the nearby intersection closed over concerns that the building might collapse further.

This past weekend, the city announced that while the intersection remains closed, parking at all on-street meters in the area bounded by Kent, O'Connor, Lisgar and Gilmour streets will be free.

That is intended to help businesses in the area that say customer traffic has dropped significantly since the intersection was closed.