Traffic changes on Broad and College streets beginning July 7 due to VCU Massey Cancer Center construction

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

RICHMOND, Va. – New traffic patterns on East Broad St. and in the vicinity of the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center begin Monday, July 7, when demolition starts on Randolph-Minor Hall to make way for the new, state-of-the-art research addition to the VCU Massey Cancer Center.  Here is a summary of the changes:

• College Street, which runs between E. Broad and E. Marshall Streets, will be closed.

• With the cooperation of the City of Richmond, the existing parking lane on the north side of East Broad Street between the I-95 ramp and 12th street will be converted into a travel lane.

• The entrance to North Hospital, at College and East Marshall Streets, will be closed and relocated to the corner of 13th and East Marshall Streets.  Valet parking and patient drop off will be available at this location throughout construction. 

As a result of these changes, patients and visitors to the VCU Medical Center will be able to enter East Broad Street from the I-95 ramp and continue up East Broad, making a right turn on 12th Street.  They then will turn right on Marshall Street to reach the new North Hospital entrance patient drop-off and valet parking, or turn left to reach the Gateway Building entrance.

The traffic changes will remain in effect throughout the construction period, estimated to be 20 months.

The 60,000 square-foot VCU Massey Cancer Research Addition will nearly double the size of the existing VCU Massey Cancer Center.  The addition will allow the cancer center to expand the type of research it conducts and attract and retain top cancer researchers.

VCU's Massey Cancer Center is one of only two National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Centers in Virginia and one of only 61 in the United States.  The new research addition will help position the VCU Massey Cancer Center to become Virginia�s first Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest designation awarded by the National Cancer Institute.

The construction project – called "Building for the Cure" – is one of more than 120 projects at public college and university campuses across the state to be funded by the General Obligation Bond for Higher Education approved by voters last November.  VCU will receive $10.1 million from the bond bill for the construction of the $29.7 million addition that will include laboratories for research, offices for staff and a healing garden for cancer center patients and staff.  The remainder of the funding will come from private donations, federal grants and other sources.