The CABS Med Center Express will be re-routed to accommodate construction that will begin soon on the Ohio State Medical Center.
Beginning Feb. 22, the Med Center Express bus route will no longer include stops at Doan Hall and Hamilton Hall.
The re-route will be initially put in place because of an emergency repair on a steam vault located at 12th Avenue. The work will reduce 12th Avenue to two very tight lanes of traffic.
“We cannot stop, even for a minute or two, to pick up passengers due to the heavy traffic along 12th,” said Sarah Blouch, director of Transportation and Parking Services. “This re-route is the best way we can still get customers to the hospital and provide a low cost parking option.”
The Med Center Express re-route will remain in effect for about two years. Blouch said the immediate project will last about two months.
Then within about two to three months, the western half of 12th Avenue will be impacted by the construction of a utility tunnel, again making it difficult to run a route down 12th.
“Rather than keep changing the route, we feel it is best to maintain consistency so we’ll leave the detour in place until all construction in this area is completed,” Blouch said.
Melanie Friess, a fourth-year in microbiology and psychology and volunteer at the OSU Medical Center, said she is glad the bus will be re-routed to help the flow of traffic.
“The traffic on the way to and from the hospital is already bad. I can’t imagine having to deal with bus stops and construction,” Friess said. “I would never make it to the hospital on time.”
Blouch said that recently ridership on the Med Center Express has been relatively low. She said this may pick up as construction begins in the medical center, making getting around a little more of a challenge.
The re-route and construction are in conjunction with Project ONE, a $1 billion expansion of the OSU Med Center. The project will allow for service of an additional 310,000 patients annually, create as many as 10,000 new full-time jobs, and provide the community with $1.7 billion in annual economic impact by 2015, according to the Project ONE Web site.
The new Med Center Express route will run from the Buckeye Parking Lot and stop at the Schottenstein Center, Cannon Drive and 12th Avenue, Med Center Drive and Cannon, Tenth Avenue and Meiling, and Ninth Avenue and Meiling.
Blouch said the Department of Transportation and Parking normally publishes route changes at every bus stop, even those they no longer service, because people may still be waiting at them. She said the information is also available on the Parking and
Transportation Web site, tp.osu.edu.
