Traffic and parking remedy

Courtesy of Transportation and Parking Services A rendering of the Medical Center Parking Garage, expected to open in early 2004.

Garage, new traffic patterns in store for Medical Center area

A new Medical Center Parking Garage is the cornerstone of a plan being devised to dramatically improve vehicle and pedestrian traffic and ease parking concerns in the Medical Center area.

In the meantime, parking availability and traffic patterns are being altered to accommodate construction of the garage and the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital.

Expected to be completed by early 2004, the garage is to be built on the surface parking lot in front of Rhodes Hall, between Ninth and 10th avenues. It will provide 975 parking spaces -- 625 more spaces than the surface lot it is replacing -- to be used primarily for patient, visitor and valet parking, said Sarah Blouch, director of Transportation and Parking Services.

"The intent is to draw all the hospital visitors that are parking in that area [in other garages] to one central location, which will vacate the surrounding space for faculty and staff, and eventually students," Blouch said, alluding to the fact that in the future garages will likely replace most surface lots.

Roughly the same size as the Tuttle Parking Garage, the new garage will be seven to eight stories built in a double helix configuration, with one planned retail space at 10th Avenue -- most likely a bagel shop or deli, Blouch said. The cost of the garage is $20 million, to be funded by Transportation and Parking.

Temporary fix

To ease growing pains associated with construction -- expected to run through September 2004 when the heart hospital is completed -- parking availability and traffic patterns, as well as some bus routes, are being altered. All emergency room traffic will enter from Cannon Drive at 10th Avenue, down Upham Drive, to the Emergency Department, while clinic traffic also will need to access the area from Cannon at 10th. Patient and visitor parking for the clinic and emergency room is available in the South Cannon Garage, or valet parking is provided in front of the clinic.

Additional parking and traffic pattern changes include:

• 10th Avenue between Belmont and the drive west of Fry Hall will become a one-way street, moving east from Belmont to Neil Avenue.

• 10th Avenue at Perry Street will close to through traffic.

• Perry Street between Ninth and 10th avenues will close.

• Patients can be dropped off at the front entrance of the hospital. All parking will be sent to the 12th Avenue Garage (detours are posted).

• The South Cannon Garage (Garage J) is now visitor/patient parking only during daytime peak hours.

• A Campus Area Bus Service stop is being relocated from in front of Rhodes Hall on 10th Avenue to the north side of Meiling (on 10th, just east of Belmont).

The above changes become effective Sept. 26 and will last throughout the construction period.

Blouch said that to avoid traffic and parking congestion in this area, faculty and staff should consider using remote parking located in the Buckeye Lot near the intersection of Fred Taylor Drive and Ackerman Road and take the Medical Center Express shuttle, which runs every seven minutes. Parking permits for faculty and staff using this area cost 50 percent less than a "B" surface parking permit.

T&P is also exploring the possibility of expanding the surface lot west of Cannon Drive, known as the polo lot, to add alternate parking for displaced faculty and staff.

Permanent cure

Some permanent changes and enhancements are planned as part of these projects to control traffic and improve circulation in the hospital area. Heading this list is the eventual realignment of Ninth Avenue, which will occur after the garage and heart hospital are completed. Perry Street from Ninth to 10th will become a wide pedestrian walkway after garage construction is complete, with a new street being built along the east edge of the new garage for motorists. Also, a traffic light is currently being installed at the 10th Avenue and Cannon Drive intersection to improve traffic flow and increase pedestrian safety, Blouch said.

A permanent change regarding COTA bus route No. 7 will take effect Sept. 26. The existing COTA stops on Belmont and Perry will be unavailable, so COTA is rerouting to include a stop on Ninth Avenue south of Meiling and on 12th Avenue north of Rhodes Hall.

For additional information on traffic, parking or transportation impacts from construction projects on campus, contact Transportation and Parking at 292-9341 or tpinfo@osu.edu, or visit the T&P Web site at www.tp.ohio-state.edu. For information related to construction on campus in general, or specific project information, contact the Office of Facilities Planning and Development at 292-0517 or visit its Web site at www.fpd.ohio-state.edu/.

Celebrating progress

Courtesy of the Medical Center A rendering of what the completed heart hospital will look like when completed by late 2004.

Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital moving closer to reality

Clear signs of progress can be viewed near the Ohio State Medical Center complex as workers make way for impending construction of the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and the Medical Center Parking Garage.

Demolition of the Rhodes Hall Auditorium is currently underway where the new heart hospital will be built between now and September 2004. Meanwhile, the surface parking lot in front of Rhodes Hall is closed and fenced off to prepare for the construction of a 975 space parking garage expected to open in early 2004.

The new heart hospital will add an enhanced clinical component to the University's widely-respected cardiac research and treatment program, said Steven Krakoff, administrative director for the Heart Program. It will be connected to the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, an 80,000-square-foot complex devoted to research on the cause and treatment of heart and lung disorders, meaning that scientific discoveries developed there can be immediately used within a patient care environment.

"This is going to give us an environment that will put us farther on the cutting edge of clinical innovations, both nationally and internationally," Krakoff said.

By Jo McCulty Robert Michler, chief of cardiothoracic surgery; Elizabeth M. Ross, who previously donated $10 million to the heart hospital; Fred Sanfilippo, senior vice president for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health; and Bill Cloyd, heart center development director, attended a Sept. 18 event celebrating progress made toward construction of the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital. The facility is named in memory of Mrs. Ross' late husband.

The elevation design of the five-story, 210,000-square-foot hospital consists of a blend of brick, glass and metal across the front, and will feature a beautiful, all-glass, five-story entrance atrium on the east side. Uniform architectural characteristics will run across the front of both the garage and heart hospital and blend the two facilities together.

"It's going to be a nice aesthetic addition to the Medical Center Mallway and will make a very powerful statement to patients, visitors and to the medical community," Krakoff said.

A sophisticated cardiac imaging unit -- used to deliver high resolution pictures of the heart and coronary arteries to allow for more accurate and certain diagnosis -- will help separate the Ross Heart Hospital from all the rest, Krakoff said. The facility is designed to accommodate technology changes as they occur without costly renovations.

"Outside experts have said they have never seen this degree of flexibility in any other heart hospital currently under design anywhere else in the country," Krakoff said.

The new hospital will feature six operating rooms, six interventional cardiology suites, 90 inpatient beds, 10 short-stay outpatient beds, an outpatient clinic with 20 exam rooms and 10 consultation rooms. It also will house a conference/board room facility that will serve as the meeting space for the OSU Health System board of directors, as well as a 200-250 seat state-of-the-art conference facility for physician education and other learning events.

By Kevin Fitzsimons   Demolition of Rhodes Hall Auditorium is currently underway to clear the site for the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital.

Two of the six operating rooms will be generously sized to accommodate robotic technology. Universal patient rooms can be transformed from a critical care unit to a normal room as a patient heals, allowing them to recuperate in the same room. Minimized patient transportation has been shown to lower the risk of infection and reduce stress on the patient and the staff moving the patient, Krakoff said.

He said the new heart hospital will streamline the patient care process, and will provide a vastly improved environment for teaching and clinical research and one that will help to recruit high quality academic and clinical faculty.

While it is difficult balancing construction with round-the-clock medical service, Krakoff said the two projects have been the stimulus for implementing the South Campus Master Plan and vastly improving traffic circulation in the area once completed. All hospital departments will remain open during the construction period.

The $82.8 million construction cost will be borne largely by the Hospitals and private fund-raising.

National architects Hammel, Green and Abrahamson of Minneapolis teamed with Design Group of Columbus to design the hospital.