LMH Construction Update (August 25, 2020)
Good Morning,
We hope this message finds you well.
We are writing to provide you with some updates regarding the activity on the Lawrence Memorial Hospital campus.
Despite the many challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak over these past months, we continue to make safe and timely progress on the construction of the ambulatory surgery center and related Lawrence Memorial Hospital lobby renovation project. We are excited to be that much closer to bringing these important health care services to the community.
Nursing students returning to School of Nursing
Assuring the safety and well-being of students and staff has been the school’s priority in planning for students return at the end of this month. Our students are local residents working and living in the greater surrounding communities. To maintain proper social distancing, the Lawrence Memorial School of Nursing is providing a mix of remote and face-to-face learning. With this plan, the school is staggering classes and holding only one class in attendance at a time at the campus. This will reduce student activity at the campus by two-thirds to about 14-30 students on site compared to an average of 90 students onsite at a given time last year. The school’s plan, including its contact tracing model has been fully approved by the Director of Public Health for Medford, MaryAnn O’Connor, and the state DPH.
Since there will be such a small number of students on site and with concerns raised about appropriate social distancing on a shuttle, students will be allowed to park in the employee parking area for the first semester. This is a temporary measure in response to safety needs and challenges related to the pandemic and will be monitored. All other aspects of our parking plan remain the same, with parking stickers for students and employees, security monitoring the parking areas, and escalation measures for parking offenses.
New phase of construction begins
A new phase of construction which will require work on the parking and sidewalk areas will begin this week and will continue for six to eight weeks. Aspects of this work will require jackhammer use and may be noisy. Work crews will use all resources to limit the disruption to the neighborhood during this time and will follow the City of Medford noise and construction procedures.
If you have any questions, please send them to community@melrosewakefield.org.
