Some people are struggling to navigate the newly opened road entrance to the north parking deck of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.
“I am confused right now,” said Alice Barrett of Ransom, who had come to the hospital Wednesday with her granddaughter Alice Devera. A hospital official explained to them how to get to the north parking deck, but Barrett was still trying to understand.
The new road entrance to the parking deck is part of the $280 million Milestone project, a nine-story, 440,000 square-foot addition to the hospital.
Changes include a new road entrance to the north parking deck off Berkeley Avenue. Drivers no longer have access to the parking deck through Armstrong Avenue.
Drivers to the hospital face another change that began Wednesday: A new traffic light instead of a three-way stop sign at the intersection of Berkeley Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, said hospital spokeswoman Shelli Dankoff.
Dankoff urged people to ask questions about the entrance and visit the medical center’s Web site, www.osfsaintfrancis.org, for an interactive map of the new entrance.
People are asking St. Francis security supervisor Pat Donlan to direct them to Knoxville or to the parking deck.
“It has been challenging,” Donlan said. “There is some confusion.”
Security officials were out on the street at 5 a.m. Wednesday. They plan to direct people all through the remainder of the week and probably on Monday, too.
While temporary signs have been put up around the hospital, the permanent sign board will go up once the weather gets better, said Director of Security Skip Alwes.
Alwes added the new entrance will “make the (traffic) flow much easier.”
The section of Armstrong Avenue that used to lead into the north parking deck was permanently closed as of Wednesday, but the section of road in front of Easter Seals and leading to the hospital’s Forest Park building will remain open.
Some people took the changes well. They included Adam Porch, who has lived in Peoria for 47 years.
Porch said this is a small change, and there are bigger problems in Peoria to worry about.
“It is for the greater good,” Porch said.
Riya V. Anandwala can be reached at 686-3194 or [email protected].
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