After months of construction work, a new road to Watford General Hospital will shortly open to motorists, making it easier for St Albans residents to access accident and emergency services.
Thomas Sawyer Way, named after Captain Tom Sawyer, a Watford resident who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009 at the age of 26 while serving in the Royal Artillery, runs for a mile and a half from Dalton Way to the hospital.
Mayor of Watford, Cllr Dorothy Thornhill, said the new road would significantly speed up journeys to and from Watford General, including for blue light vehicles, which will see emergency times to the A&E unit reduced thanks to the improved route.
She said that as well as reducing traffic around the hospital, Thomas Sawyer Way, which opens to the public from November 16, would make it easier for people to travel to their medical appointments at Watford.
Construction began in June 2015, and marks the successful completion of the first phase of the multi-million-pound Watford Health Campus scheme, which includes new homes, business premises and community facilities.
The road’s opening will mean changes to how people access the hospital by car, with street signs changed to help motorists find their way.
• General visitors can go via the new road, from either Dalton Way or Wiggenhall Road, to provide access to the visitor car parks to the rear of the hospital. Visitor car parks will not be accessible from Vicarage Road.
• Disabled car parking will continue to be available near the Vicarage Road entrance, and the Renal Unit.
• Maternity Ward: the drop-off access will also continue to be via the existing entrance at Vicarage Road.
• Emergency access to A&E will be via Thomas Sawyer Way.
• Hospital staff who park in the main staff car park will use the new road to enter and leave the car park.
• Blue light section: part of the road is only for the use of ambulances and buses, with no other vehicular access permitted – the road cannot thus be used as a ‘cut through’ for vehicles between Wiggenhall and Vicarage Roads.
• For more information see http://watfordhealthcampus.org/?p=1327
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