Route 13 work will impact hospital traffic

The final phase of a project to improve drainage along business Route 13 in Salisbury is set to begin in the next few weeks, starting at South Boulevard and ending at Calvert Street.

The work will move northward in phases and will include replacing pipes under the road and updating sidewalks to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Tanesha Hankerson, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Highway Administration.

A lot of the work will be done at night, when traffic isn’t as heavy, she said.

“We’ll try to inconvenience motorists as little as possible,” Hankerson said.

As of Thursday, there was no firm start date for the project, she said.

RELATED: Work on Route 13 slows traffic through Eden

The work is expected to have an impact on traffic around Peninsula Regional Medical Center in the second and third phases, from Newton to Vine streets and then from Vine to Calvert, respectively, the hospital announced.

Crossover street intersections, like Vine Street at Route 13, will be shut down for a couple of days during that portion of the phase where work to put in drainage pipe happens exactly at that crossover point.

RELATED: Ugly Route 13 could get urban makeover

In a Facebook post, the hospital encouraged all staff members, patients and visitors to begin preparing for the roadwork now and to become accustomed to using these alternate routes of travel to reach the hospital:

• From the south and east: Use South Boulevard to Waverly Drive or East Carroll Street to Waverly Drive and access the campus at Waverly and Vine (avoiding Route 13 at Vine Street)
• From the north: Use East Carroll Street to Waverly Drive and access the campus at Waverly and Vine
• From the west: Use East Carroll to Waverly Drive and access the campus at Waverly and Vine

Surgery patients, cancer patients and labor and delivery patients will still be able to reach their designated parking and entrances off Vine Street coming in from Waverly Drive.

Additionally, as part of the project, PRMC will be permanently closing the roadway entrance to the Richard A. Henson Cancer Institute off Route 13. All Henson Cancer institute traffic will access their specific parking lot from Vine Street in the future. All ambulance traffic will also be following a similar pattern to reach the hospital during construction.

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