Memorial Medical Center to Temporarily Redirect Main-Entrance Traffic

[May 09, 2015]  SPRINGFIELD – To keep its construction project running ahead of schedule, Memorial Medical Center will redirect pedestrian and vehicle traffic at its front entrance at First and Miller streets beginning May 11.

The hospital’s circle drive will be closed to vehicles. Instead, patients will be dropped off and picked up at the curb along the southbound lane of First Street. Staff will also provide valet service to patients from the curbside drop-Phase 1 map.jpgoff point.

All other vehicles, including employee drop-offs and pick-ups as well as food deliveries, will be routed to other hospital entrances.

“We ask our patients and visitors for their patience as we implement these changes so we can stay ahead of schedule on the construction of our patient care tower,” said Harry Schmidt, vice president of facilities management for Memorial Health System. “Our front-entrance staff will be ready to help them as they arrive or are ready to leave.”

Drivers approaching the hospital from the south will need to follow directional signage that will detour them around the Springfield Clinic 1st 800 Building so they can approach the drop-off and pick-up point by traveling south on First Street.
Pedestrians who use the two main patient-and-visitor parking lots south and southeast of the hospital’s main entrance will only be able to enter Memorial from First Street. The hospital will post directional signs on campus to lead pedestrians and vehicle traffic to the appropriate areas to access the main entrance. The first phase will be completed on May 23. A second phase, which will reroute patient drop-off and pick-up traffic to Miller Street, will begin May 24 and last until September.

The final major phase of Memorial’s campus expansion project, the construction of a three-story patient care addition with 114 private patient rooms, is ahead of schedule and is expected to be ready for use in November.

[Michael Leathers, Memorial Health Systems]