While the Pavilion is rising high above city streets, a small but important part of it is under construction beneath them: a tunnel connecting the Pavilion to HUP.
Running between the new facility’s emergency department and the Silverstein basement at HUP, the tunnel will provide a quick way to deliver surgical supplies, medications, and “back of house” supplies like linens between the two buildings. But, even more important, it will keep transported patients apart from the general public. “Right now patients being transported between HUP and the Perelman Center are wheeled across the bridge, along with employees and visitors,” said Carolyn Jackson, COO of the hospital. “A tunnel will give them more privacy and enable more timely transport for those needing to cross the street for care.
The 130-foot tunnel will be approximately 12 feet wide, equal to the widest point of the current bridge connecting HUP to the Perelman Center. Roughly 735 tons of concrete will be used to construct the tunnel. Based on analysis, an estimated 38,000 patient transport trips will go through the tunnel annually, most of them heading from the Paviion into Silverstein.
Before the underground construction could begin, a myriad of lines and pipes needed to be rerouted out of its path. This included gas, electric, steam, water, sewer, and fiber optics. But the logistics involved in accomplishing this task, which began over a year ago and is still ongoing, are not easy, said Bryan Heigh, project manager in Real Estate and Architecture. “This is a major utility corridor, supplying two large hospitals,” he said. Thousands of feet of utility lines are being re-worked to accommodate the tunnel below the street surface. The project also requires the replacement of an extremely old brick sewer beneath the tunnel with a much stronger six-foot diameter concrete sewer line.
Another challenge during tunnel construction, which began last July, has been managing the impact on traffic along 33rd and 34th streets. “Thousands of people are traveling 34th street, typically at peak times,” Heigh said. “It’s a constant effort to keep things moving during construction.”
Changing the flow of traffic on 33rd and 34th streets required planning with the both the City and the State. “33rd is a State-controlled road and 34th is a City-controlled road,” he said. “What PennDOT wants and what the City’s Streets Department wanted wasn’t always the same…. It was a challenge!”
In order to maintain three lanes of traffic during the year-long project, the median between 33rd and 34th Streets was eliminated and traffic was shifted so that space became 33rd Street, while 34th street remained two lanes. However, in the next phase – which is targeted to start in January – the roadways will shift back to what used to be 33rd street to again maintain two lanes for 34th Street and one lane for 33rd Street. The roadway transitioning had the potential of leading to traffic jams particularly in front of the ED. With the help of Penn Police and HUP Security and Parking Operations, an “all hands on deck” approach has been deployed to help minimize the impact of the new traffic pattern in the area.
According to Heigh, prior to work on the tunnel, HUP had two ambulance bays and if a third or fourth ambulance arrived, it was parked on 34th street. So, as part of the tunnel project, additional ambulance pad space was created directly to the right of the current ED entrance that could fit two or three more ambulances before disrupting a travel lane on 34th street.
Construction on the tunnel is scheduled for completion by next summer.