NEEDED- Multiple Updates for NIH Bethesda Main Campus

Map Editors Community United States Maryland
1

I am an employee with NIH facilities and have been asked to send a number of updates for our Bethesda Main Campus. These road updates will be a part of a number of construction projects going on in the coming months & years.

One of the additional requests (if possible), is that the aerial map on Waze be updated with more details to better help visitors/employees navigate through the campus. The map used in this link not only has buildings, parking garages & other things labeled to use for these updates but the construction updates can also be found: https://traffic.nih.gov/Pages/default.aspx . If possible, they would like to have the parking garages, buildings & roads labeled.

I will place some of the needed road updates below but the link to the interactive map can also help give more information of the location of these updates. Most of the more urgent updates can be found on the map in yellow or by any of the purple car icons.

Please let me know if anything else is needed or can offer more assistance. These updates are very important to NIH leadership & are greatly appreciated. They would eventually like to furnish a heat map of parking garage usage to possible help Waze direct travelers to certain parking garages at certain times depending on trends in usage/capacity. I will follow up with that information at another time.

  • Center Drive/Convent Drive (Partial) Closure

The closure of a portion of Center Drive and Convent Drive is necessary to enable SRLM construction. Alternate access to buildings along the closed road will be provided.
Closure: February 22, 2022
Reopen: Summer 2028

  • Temporary Road – South Drive to Building 60/Convent

With a portion of South Drive closed, this temporary roadway will allow access to Buildings 60 (Cloisters), 61 (Convent) and 65 (Safra Lodge).
Start: March 2022
End: Summer 2028

  • Lincoln Drive – Double Entrance Capacity

A second gate arm installed at the Lincoln Drive entrance will double the gate’s capacity for vehicles to enter campus. The guard booth and exit lanes will be repositioned to improve pedestrian safety at the intersection of Old Georgetown Road.
Start: March 2022
End: Permanent

  • North Drive – Exit (Right Turn Only)

Slated to open to exiting traffic (right turn only). Date is still to be determined. North Drive is currently entrance only on weekday mornings.
Start: February 2022
End: Permanent

  • East Drive

Open to two-way traffic. This is a permanent change.
Status: Completed
Some of these updates are fairly URGENT need.

Thank you

Chris Shirley

2

Hi Chris, thanks for this information. I have responded below to various requests and issues you raised.

As you know if you are a user of the Waze app, there is no “aerial map” available within the app, only a very abstracted outline-type map. We do have aerial photos available in the Map Editor, but these are of no help to visitors navigating through the campus, and in any event we (volunteer editors) don’t have any control over when the photos are updated.

What you could do is add Place points to the map for individual buildings on campus that visitors or employees could then set as their destination. You can do this in the Map Editor by clicking the Place menu at the top, selecting an appropriate category (such as Offices, Doctor/Clinic, etc., depending on the nature of the building), and then clicking on the map at the location of the destination and filling in details in the left panel. If you need help with this, feel free to send me a PM.

I’ve marked these roads as scheduled to be closed effective at 6:00 am on Tuesday, Feb. 22, and expiring in Sept. 2028. Please advise if you become aware of any change in the construction schedule.

I’ve added the temporary road to the Waze map, and marked it as “private” so that no one should be routed over it until the closure of Center Dr becomes effective. I’ve also made the generous assumption that this road will actually open at the same time as Center Dr is closed, although the start date of “March” could suggest that these three buildings will be totally inaccessible for several weeks.

This is not a change in the traffic pattern so it doesn’t require an update to our map.

We need a more exact start date for this change. If we change the map now, we would give incorrect directions to users seeking to exit the campus until the change is actually implemented.

This change has been made on the map. However, it won’t affect routing in the app until Thursday morning at the earliest, and possibly later.
We appreciate the detailed update on these traffic pattern changes. Please keep us informed of any future changes!

3

For the North Dr exit the opens, besides the date of it occurring are there any hours/days that the exit will be open or is it 24/7 due to the other gate being closed for 6 yrs?
Also any other hours for the gates changing? Thanks

4

I will check on that needed information and get back to you as soon as i hear.

Thank you

5

Here is some information regarding the North Drive & South Drive & Old Georgetown questions:

When North Drive is open for exiting in the afternoons starting on April 10th, Hours will be 3 pm to 7 pm. North Drive entrance can only be one way at a time, so it will be entrance only in the mornings and exit only in the afternoons.

South Drive at Old Georgetown Road will take on the hours of the Center Drive gate once Center Drive closes. This will include weekend access.

6

Thanks set up the South Dr (western gate) hours.
For the new North Dr eastbound have to wait till after today’s TU to add the RTC and then pull the 24/7 TBSR (which is preventing routing once the TU goes live.

7

Ok, the new North Gate exit to Rockville Pike is set up, but not allowing traffic to exit yet. Can you let us know when it opens? We can get it updated basically instantly.

8

Yes; certainly will let you know when it opens.

Thank you

9

New Update for NIH Bethesda Main Campus. Attached aerial photo is to show the NIH South Drive entrance on the Old Georgetown side will be closed from March 28th to April 1st. The areas indicated in yellow will still be accessible for delivery trucks to access but no other cars will be able to enter from this entrance during this time period. There will be crain work being done in the area indicated in Red. If the system could reflect this period of closure to redirect people elsewhere, that would be helpful.
Thank you Souith Drive Entrance Closed.JPG

10

I set the closures as specified.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

11

The closure from the main post regarding Center drive will now not be active until this summer. The current closures that show can be removed until they have been put in place. Please see attached picture to indicate the dates. Thank you

12

Hi,

When you add an attachment to a forum post, you need to be sure to use the “Place inline” button after uploading the file; otherwise, we can’t see it.

13

Center Drive Summer Closure.JPG
Thank you for the information; i have placed the picture correctly now.

14

The closures from Center Dr on the western exit/entrance from Old Georgetown Rd were pulled by Russblau.

I noticed that both accesses to NIH MLP-9 (parking lot) are prevented by red turn restrictions, Is that lot closed? Here is the PL to Convent Dr southbound

15

Hello- I can replying to report that the same closure that took place from my March 23rd post will be taking place from May 9th through May 13th. If more details are needed please let me know, Here is a repost of that information with the updated dates; photo is on the original March 23rd post:

"New Update for NIH Bethesda Main Campus. Attached aerial photo is to show the NIH South Drive entrance on the Old Georgetown side will be closed from May 9th to May 13th. The areas indicated in yellow will still be accessible for delivery trucks to access but no other cars will be able to enter from this entrance during this time period. There will be crain work being done in the area indicated in Red. If the system could reflect this period of closure to redirect people elsewhere, that would be helpful.

16

Can you let us know if this is the place to be closed?
https://www.waze.com/en-US/editor?env=usa&lon=-77.10765&lat=38.99979&zoomLevel=19&segments=84034848

not sure what the delivery access means exactly so I left access to the one PLR and rest is closed.

17

Souith Drive Entrance Closed.JPG
Regarding the deliveries, just wanted to confirm the spots in yellow are still open for delivery trucks to still make their ways to loading docks. The area in red will be closed to all. Hope this clears things up some. Thank you

18

I don’t understand

  1. how the nw yellow segment has acces for delivery trucks with the long red on the main road segment.
  2. the announcement states just the entrance is closed not the exit. So is the main road closed in both directions? Or just for incoming ?
19

  1. The delivery trucks can come into that entrance but can only go to the right to reach that loading dock located on the yellow strip & then the exit is open for them to leave. The same goes on the other side near Convent drive & South drive; a delivery truck can turn left off Covent drive just to reach that short yellow area where another loading dock is.

  2. The road will be closed for all traffic in the red area from both directions. The exit is only open for those delivery trucks using the loading dock on the Old Georgetown side to get out essentially.

20

Just for another reference, here is the annoucement NIH just sent out:“Due to the need to again assemble a crane on South Drive near Buildings 37 and 40, the Lincoln Drive/Old Georgetown Road entrance/exit will reopen for normal hours of operation (6am – 7pm, Monday - Friday) during the week of May 9 - 13. During this same period, South Drive from Old Georgetown to Convent Drive will be closed. This will allow the NIH to maintain two open entrances/exits on weekdays during this period of significant construction on the western side of the Bethesda campus. The crane work on South Drive is part of the construction of the new MLP-14 patient parking garage and utility vault.”

“On May 16, these two entrances/exits will revert back with South Drive/Old Georgetown Road reopening on weekdays, 6am – 7pm, and Lincoln/Old Georgetown Road closing through August 2022 for widening, intersection and safety improvements.”