A section of parking lot in front of Samaritan Medical Center's pavilion will be closed temporarily starting Monday.
That will cause traffic and parking to be rerouted in that area for two weeks while the project is being completed.
Hospital spokeswoman Krista A. Kittle said HBE Corp., St. Louis, Mo., general contractor of Samaritan's $61 million expansion and renovation project, will subcontract to fix rippled pavement in that location.
The section of pavement began to buckle in the winter from the freezing and thawing of excessive groundwater, according to a news release issued Friday by Samaritan. That portion of the project was completed in the fall, but HBE had to wait to fix the issue until the ground thawed.
The entire drive along Washington Street in front of the pavilion, from the north corner to the south corner, will be closed to vehicles. Patients and visitors will be encouraged to:
■ Park in the hospital's garage and enter the hospital through the emergency department walk-in entrance or the north entrance into the main lobby, which is marked with a blue canopy.
■ Pick up and drop off patients in the pavilion's north entrance nearest to the emergency department and parking garage
The news release said repairs to the section of pavement are part of the hospital's building warranty and will be completed at the contractor's expense. Included in the repair is removal of the blacktop and stone base and installation of an improved underground drainage system, a new, thicker stone base and blacktop.
While pavement work is being completed, Ms. Kittle said, Samaritan's internal crews and area contractors will work on renovating some of the 71,500 square feet of hospital space that formerly housed the intensive-care, progressive-care, surgical-services, emergency and medical/surgical units. The former main lobby, gift shop and cafeteria also will be renovated.
Bernier, Carr & Associates, an architectural and engineering firm in Watertown, designed the renovation component of the project.
"Right now it's just demolition of old areas," Ms. Kittle said Friday. "It's really not visible to the public at this point because they walled it off."
The biggest public benefit from renovations, she said, will be a consolidated outpatient and admissions area in the old emergency room space.
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