There will soon be a big change in access to parking for thousands of staff members who work at the QEII.
The hospital is undergoing a major expansion, the largest healthcare construction project in the history of the province.
It means, by the end of the summer, the Robie street parkade, which currently holds over 600 parking spots, will come down.
The parking entrance to the Robie Street parkade. Photo: Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting
This will leave healthcare workers to look for alternatives to an already difficult situation—where to leave their car.
Dorothy MacLeod, Senior Clinical Director with the QEII redevelopment project, says the parking situation at the hospital has been an issue for many, many years but staff have adjusted.
However, she tells our newsroom, knowing they are going to lose a lot of parking capacity when the Robie Street parkade gets demolished, they looked at several options.
“We really heard from staff about how important solutions close to work were and so we approached a number of different options and the one that proved to be viable was the partnership with Parks Canada to undertake the expansion of the Garrison Grounds.”
Construction is underway to expand the parking lot at the Garrison Grounds. Photo: Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting
After an environmental assessment and community consultations, Parks Canada is removing a patch of green space at the Garrison Grounds to expand the parking lot for at least ten years.
In addition to the Garrison Grounds, which will expand to 230 available spots, the Summer Street parkade will have 100 spots for carpooling.
However, Nova Scotia Health says to make sure the Summer St parkade is available to patients and families, through the construction project, staff will not be able to park there from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays.
The Summer Street parkade. Photo: Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting
There will also be offsite parking on College Street and public transportation as other options available to staff, according to Jane Davies, CEO of Partners for Care.
Partners for Care is a non-profit service provider that assists Nova Scotia Health with parking, staff engagement and patient experience.
Davies tells us that they have implemented a program, Options for Parking and Transportation (OPT), which staff found out about in a memo, Wednesday.
It is a program where staff can choose what will work best for them, but she says, they are encouraging “active and sustainable transportation.”
“We are encouraging staff to walk or bike or carpool to work and/or take Halifax transit. One of the things we’ve included in this program is each staff member that signs up for one of these options, will get five free taxi vouchers.”
Davies adds that they have even created an online resource centre to allow staff to see what parking is available in the community, as well as a carpooling app.
She says they are still two months away until the Robie Street parkade is demolished and will be listening very carefully to feedback, but is confident they have a “really, really good start.”
It is still unclear how big the new parkade will be when the expansion of the hospital is finished.
The Robie street parkade is set to come down by August 26.
