Work on UTMB’s concourse renovation project is scheduled to expand, starting Monday, Sept. 17, to include parts of the Old John Sealy Hospital and John Sealy Annex-North. Also, crews will close the west entrance to the Clinical Sciences Building.

The concourse project began in August at John Sealy Hospital and the UTMB Health Clinics (UHC) building. The concourse will connect seven clinical buildings on UTMB’s campus and cover 75,000 square feet of first-floor corridor and lobby space. Completion is scheduled in June 2013.

Here are planned changes to accommodate construction:

• The Clinical Sciences Building’s elevators will be accessible from the upper floors of the complex, but not from the first-floor area near the west door, which will be closed.
• Staff/freight elevators in the UHC building will no longer travel to the first floor. They will continue to operate on all upper floors. UHC public elevators are not affected. Deliveries to UHC may be made using the McCullough elevators or the John Sealy Annex elevators to access level 2 and then travel to the UHC staff/freight elevators.
• The Clinical Sciences elevators not serving the first-floor bed storage area will no longer travel to the first floor. They will continue to operate on the upper floors. They may be accessed on level 2 via the John W. McCullough Building elevators or the John Sealy Annex elevators.
• The oxygen bottle storage area located outside on the loading dock of the John Sealy Annex (between Clinical Sciences and Old Children’s) will be relocated to the north loading dock of the John Sealy Annex-North.

Pedestrians will need to followed marked detours set up in August around two other construction areas:

• The eastern end of the “Main Street” corridor in John Sealy Hospital will close. The Main Street coffee shop will relocate temporarily to the nearby Café on the Court cafeteria. The hospital chapel has relocated to Room 1.136 in the John Sealy Annex. It is immediately north of the cafeteria and accessible by walking through the cafeteria to the Annex hallway. The Main Street entrance to the gift shop will also close. The gift shop will remain open, with access through the hospital lobby. The corridor is expected to reopen in February 2013.

• The south-facing 9th Street entrance to the UHC building has been closed. Pedestrians from the south need to follow an alternate second-floor route to the UHC that begins at the entrance to John Sealy Hospital. UHC’s north entrance remains open.

The concourse will feature terrazzo in the open lobby spaces, shorter routes to clinics, and materials designed in specific locations to help visitors find restrooms, elevators and other parts of the buildings. Separate corridors are planned for the public and in-house personnel to create a pleasant environment and allow staff members to more easily complete their work.

The project also is designed to provide climate and utility systems for the ground floor independent from the upper floors in John Sealy Hospital. Water-resistant building materials will be used to minimize potential damage in the event of flooding.

Other buildings to be linked by the project include the Clinical Sciences Building, John W. McCullough Building, John Sealy Annex, R. Waverley Smith Pavilion, and Research Building 6, formerly called Children’s Hospital.