Lincoln Drive Expansion to Close Entrance/Exit Starting March 14
Beginning March 14 and continuing through June 2022, the Lincoln Drive entrance/exit at Old Georgetown Road will be closed for major construction to widen and improve the intersection. Once complete, Lincoln Drive will have two lanes of incoming and exiting traffic, improved pedestrian safety, and other safety, security and egress enhancements to expedite traffic flow in both directions. The closure of Center Drive at Old Georgetown Road will not occur until Lincoln Drive is re-opened.
To view a rendering of what the new intersection will look like when complete, visit:
https://go.usa.gov/xzBGc.
While Lincoln Drive is closed, the hours of operation for South Drive at Old Georgetown Road will be expanded to Monday – Friday, 6am – 7pm for inbound and outbound traffic. For a complete list of the hours of operation for all entrances/exits, please visit the NIH Employee Access Map at:
https://ors.od.nih.gov/maps/Pages/Employee-Access-Map.aspx.
During construction, the pedestrian portal at Lincoln Drive will also need to be temporarily closed. Once closed, we ask staff to use the pedestrian entrance at South Drive and Old Georgetown Road or the portal located in the Battery Lane neighborhood as an alternative.
The Lincoln Drive improvements are part of the NIH Building for All campaign (https://buildingforall.nih.gov), a joint effort of the Office of Research Services and the Office of Research Facilities. To date, these mitigation strategies to address traffic and parking issues also include:
* Addition of Express Shuttle from Lots 41 & 42 to Building 10
* Changes to the MLP-9/ACRF (P-2/P-3) parking garages
* Converting Lot 4A to valet parking
The Building for All campaign was launched in response to major construction projects on the northwest portion of the Bethesda campus beginning in early to mid-2022, including a:
* 5-story addition to the Vaccine Research Center
* New MLP-14 Patient/Patient Visitor Parking Garage and Utility Vault
* 9-story Surgery, Radiology and Laboratory Medicine (SRLM) wing of the hospital.
The NIH recognizes and appreciates the considerable adjustments staff are making as we undertake these major, critical improvements to our research capabilities, patient experience and hospital operations. Mitigation strategies aimed at reducing congestion and distributing parking were based on expert traffic modeling and other data-based decision-making.
Additional information about upcoming changes, including suggestions on where to park and enter campus based on where you live and work and the most up-to-date information to the NIH campus related to parking, traffic and associated construction are available at the NIH Traffic website:
https://traffic.nih.gov.
For construction-related questions, use the ORF Response mailbox (orfresponse@mail.nih.gov). For traffic/parking/access questions, use the ORS Information Line at
orsinfo@mail.nih.gov or 301-594-6677.