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Additions to the hospital mean short term adjustments to campus

CCNews Newsletter Story

Parking and traffic will be impacted

architectural drawing of hospital expansion
Artist's depiction of the new wing planned for the NIH Clinical Center.

The new year advanced many construction projects at the NIH campus that are part of the larger "Building for All" initiative. The ongoing projects will further enhance research capabilities and the patient experience at NIH, but may require short-term changes commuting routines for staff, patients and visitors. The Office of Research Facilities, the Office of Research Services and the Clinical Center are implementing strategies to minimize traffic and parking disruptions.

Upcoming changes

Starting March 6, 2023, the P1 entrance to underground parking at the Clinical Center will close. Only the entrance will close and parking will still be available on the P-1 level. All hospital patients and visitors are encouraged to use valet parking or the P-3 entrance/exit on Memorial Drive.

Getting onto the NIH campus

The entrance/exit at Center Drive at Old Georgetown Road has closed until approximately Summer 2028.

Pedestrian access at Center Drive/Old Georgetown Road has also closed and people should use the nearby access portal to the north behind the fire house and the entrance/exit at South Drive.

Several Entrances/Exits have expanded hours:

Lincoln Drive entrance/exit: 5 am – 9 pm access from Monday to Friday; 6 am – 4 pm on Weekends/Holidays.
South Drive entrance/exit: 6 am – 7 pm access from Monday to Friday.

With construction closing access to some parts of the campus to the west of the hospital (Convent Drive), a new roadway is available to access the Safra Lodge (Building 65) and Buildings 60 and 61. Signage will direct people to this location.

Parking

Multi-Level Parking (MLP) garage 9 is open and available for Building 10 staff only. To manage traffic flow, staff can enter MLP-9 northbound and southbound, but can only leave the garage in a southbound direction.

MLP-8, MLP-6 and Lot 10H are open and accessible to Building 10 staff as well as all NIH staff on campus. It is a short walk to the Building 10 Complex from any of these garages and ample parking exists in each of them.

The Building 10 parking garage has closed about 200 parking spaces to accommodate MRI equipment, roughly 50-60 spaces over floors P1, P2 and P3. There will be no impact to patient or accessible parking spaces.

A new 104 space visitor parking lot opened at Lot 18 on the south side of the NIH campus. This lot is served by the Campus and Campus Limited shuttle routes.

Hope is on the horizon. The new MLP-14 parking garage located next to the hospital is expected to open to Clinical Center and other NIH staff in 2025, as construction projects begin to wrap up.

Signage throughout the Bethesda campus has been updated and will continue in early 2023 to reflect these new parking and traffic options, detour routes, closures and general wayfinding, particularly to assist patients and visitors. Reminders will be sent as we get closer to these important dates.

As these traffic and roadway changes start happening – please be patient, drive safely and watch for pedestrians.

Have questions, or want more information about these developments?

Traffic, parking and access - Office of Research Services at orsinfo@mail.nih.gov or 301-594-6677.

SRLM and other construction projects - the Office of Research Facilities at orfresponse@mail.nih.gov.

For more information about additional parking and traffic changes associated with the SRLM and other construction on the NIH campus, please visit the BuildingforAll website.

- Maria Maslennikov