According to Elizabethtown officials, a 200-foot section of Woodland Drive, adjacent to the Hardin Memorial Hospital emergency department, will be closed to traffic beginning September 22. The closure will accommodate a new, efficient ambulance-only entrance to the hospital’s expanding emergency department.
Drivers who travel east on Cardinal Drive and turned left onto Woodland Drive near the hospital’s emergency department will soon be directed to use the newly-constructed Hill Street Connector to access Woodland Drive north of the Hardin Memorial Hospital campus.
Similarly, drivers on North Dixie Avenue will now be directed to use Layman Lane to access businesses or nearby residences on Woodland Drive north of the hospital campus.
Additionally, city officials are planning to install a new four-way stop at the intersection of Woodland Drive, Layman Lane and Hill Street. Beginning Thursday, electronic directional signs will be in place to help alert drivers to the upcoming changing traffic patterns.
Elizabethtown Director of Planning and Development Ed Poppe added drivers such as those headed to Helmwood Heights Elementary School will still be able to access Cardinal Drive from the southern-most end of Woodland Drive where it intersects with Dixie Avenue, but a permanent barricade will be installed just north of the intersection of Woodland and Cardinal.
That means drivers who live in the Deepwood Drive and State Street areas who may have previously traveled south down Woodland Drive and turned directly onto Cardinal Drive will now have to access Cardinal Drive via the Hill Street Connector.
Public safety officials have adjusted their routes as needed to the Woodland Drive area and expect no changes to response times.
The changes come as Hardin Memorial Hospital undertakes a 14,000 square-foot expansion of the Emergency Department. Originally built to serve 44,000 patients annually, the emergency department now sees upwards of 70,000, ranking the fifth busiest in Kentucky.
The pending traffic changes will not impact access to the emergency department. Hospital officials encourage emergency department walk-in patients to enter the hospital campus from Dixie Avenue.
The Hospital Women’s Imaging Center and the center’s exclusive parking is accessible from Layman Lane, the new Hill Street Connector and Woodland Drive.
The Hospital’s Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center at 1010 Woodland Drive is easily accessible from Layman Lane, the new Hill Street Connector and Woodland Drive.
For more information about the changes including maps showing the new traffic pattern and answers to frequently asked questions, visit HMH.net/emergencydepartment.
Source: NE
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