MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s $567 million, six-story expansion project goes before the DC Zoning Commission on June 8, along with a construction agreement worked out with nearby neighborhood groups designed to minimize impact on the communities.

In recent years, Reservoir Road, from MacArthur Boulevard to 35 Street, has endured a succession of major building projects stretching from a new high school at The Lab School of Washington to renovation of the German Embassy and Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

Now, a far larger project is to begin before January 2018, as the hospital has gained approval for a new wing on its east side that will increase the number of beds used from 415 to 538, according to the Certificate of Need granted, with conditions, by the DC Health Department in March 2016.

A rendering of the design of the planned Medical/Surgical Pavilion at MedStar Georgetown, from the filing for review with the D.C. Zoning Commission.

The construction agreement, signed May 17, 2017, covers a wide range of activities, including management of truck traffic, worker comings and goings and restrictions on eating places, parking and noise limitations. The agreement for the project, to be carried out by Trammell Crow Company and Clark Construction Group, includes planned work hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Workers will take shuttles to the site and won’t be allowed to park in neighborhoods. Those caught eating in the wrong place, like in the hospital, face fines starting at $100 for a first offense and rising to $1,000 for the third, and removal from the project for a fourth.

Supply deliveries are to come only with 72 hours notice and trucks won’t be allowed to idle on Reservoir Road, according to the agreement. Project managers are to log violations. Among efforts to reduce intrusion on neighbors, the plan references use of a batch concrete plant on site to remove 50 trips a day of concrete mixer trucks.

Regardless of the details, the crux of the agreement, like any other, will be the how of its enforcement. With renovation of Ellington, still under way, neighbors, builders and city officials have been at odds over issues such as pushing the envelope on construction hours, according to The Northwest Current.

Glover Archbold National Park Impact

The May 17 MGUH construction agreement makes no mention of Glover Archbold National Park, where, along the northern stretch of the park-campus border, project planners envision intensifying traffic and putting in a new traffic light at Gate 4 beside the park. Nor does the document mention road construction in connection with traffic patterns for Gate 4.

But a “revised conditions” exhibit filed May 19 does. It says that MGUH and GU “shall construct a roadway running from east to west connecting Entrance 4 to the Leavey Garage,” but it won’t be used for “any construction related traffic (including employee shuttles and trucks), commercial vehicles, or services/deliveries.” Use could change if reviewed and approved by the GU Community Partnership. (See, GU’s Park Loop Road Nouveau)

A recent study by Colorado State University and National Park Service scientists highlights that noise from human activity is increasingly drowning out the natural voice of national parks around the country.

The agreement says the vector for helicopter traffic to and from the hospital, which has been mainly over the park en route to a pad on the northwest corner of campus, will move to the roof of the new hospital wing and go “linearly” over campus toward the Potomac River. An average of 1.5 flights per day are anticipated.

Signing the Construction Management Agreement were MedStar Health, Inc. and the community representatives on the Georgetown Community Partnership Steering Committee, who are from the Citizens Association of Georgetown, the Burleith Citizens Associations and the Foxhall Community Citizens Association or Advisory Neighborhood Commission members, as well as Steering Committee leaders. Those signing are MedStar Health, Inc. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer M. Joy Drass, and community representatives Jennifer Romm, 
Robert Avery,
 Nan P. Bell, Conrad J. DeWitte Jr., Ronald B. Lewis,
 Ed Solomon
 and Rick Murphy.

“Enabling projects,” such as demolition of the Kober-Cogan Building, are to start in coming months. Other elements of the construction agreement include:

• Complete transparency of all information and data relating to construction;
• Repairing and resurfacing any part of Reservoir Road or other roads within the community damaged by construction traffic;
• Off-site parking to replace the loss of on-site parking during construction;
• Noise provisions include use of flagmen in lieu of back-up beepers for on-site trucks; no tailgate slamming on dump trucks; noise generating construction activities shall not exceed 50 decibels as measured 
from the nearest interior space within the adjacent GU residence halls; and use of auger piles instead of driven piles.

The Zoning Commission filing also notes that MGUH, with more than 4,400 employees, plans to reduce peak hour vehicle trips by 5 to 12 percent compared to counts from February 2015.

Project approval conditions set by the DC Health Department include that “MGUH must enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the DC Primary Care Association to develop, fund, operate, and maintain in perpetuity a cancer diagnosis and treatment program to provide uncompensated care services to uninsured, underinsured and at risk D.C. residents and to ensure access to services (inpatient and outpatient) at MedStar facilities in the District.”

For the D.C. Zoning Commission file of exhibits, go to https://app.dcoz.dc.gov/Content/Search/ViewExhibits.aspx. (This link’s connection to the actual files is sporadic, working early this morning but now linking to a general search window.) The commission hearing on the project is at 6:30 p.m. at 441 4^th St., NW. Among the key issues before the commission will be MGUH’s request for an exception to building height regulations.

For additional reporting and analysis of GU development, see GU 2017-36 Campus Plan: Loose Ends.

© 2017 John A. Bray

Exhibits from the MGUH filings include: