Starting Sunday, Feb. 5, a portion of S.W. Campus Drive will be closed to everyone arriving on OHSU's Marquam Hill Campus in private vehicles to ensure safety during tram construction; emergency vehicles and TriMet bus routes will not be affected during the initial phase of work  

PORTLAND, Ore. -Oregon Health & Science University is helping the City of Portland safely expedite construction of the Portland Aerial Tram by limiting vehicle access to S.W. Campus Drive on Marquam Hill. Patients, visitors and employees will not be able to travel the full length of Campus Drive in either direction.

Beginning Sunday, Feb. 5, the section of Campus Drive that runs through the construction zone will be closed to all private vehicles. That portion of Campus Drive will remain open to Tri-Met buses, emergency vehicles and construction vehicles.  All buses will continue to use existing routes and stops. Flaggers will ensure maximum safety in the area. Barricades and signage on either side of the closed section and along S.W. Terwilliger Parkway and S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road will alert drivers.

The City of Portland, which is managing the tram project, expects the first phase of construction to continue until the first part of April.  Work on the tram's upper terminal is already well under way.

The section of Campus Drive that will close runs from just below the entrance to the parking garage in the new 335,000-square-foot, 11-story OHSU Hospital expansion to just above the rear loading dock for the new building.

Because the lower portion of Campus Drive is not in the construction zone, entry and access to all parking structures served by that part of the roadway will remain open. The Casey Eye Institute, Doernbecher Children's Hospital and Campus Drive parking structures will be accessible to vehicles coming up Campus Drive from S.W. Terwilliger Parkway. Access to the Canyon parking structure will continue to be via the lower section of Campus Drive or from S.W. Veteran's Hospital Road

For the convenience of patients, the Physicians Pavilion garage will be dedicated entirely to an expanded free valet parking service starting on Monday, Feb. 6.  Entry to valet parking will be at the P1 level of the garage, which is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Emergency Department also has implemented free valet parking for patients. Visitors to the Emergency Department may leave their vehicles with a parking attendant at the front entrance from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.

The city anticipates that on or around the beginning of April, the next phase of tram construction will begin, necessitating closure of the construction zone on Campus Drive to all through traffic including buses.