St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital Adding More Parking for Patients, Visitors and Colleagues

St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital’s campus has undergone some recent noticeable changes, as they begin the first phase of a large construction project that will address parking and access issues for patients, visitors, and colleagues.

When completed, the project will add over 200 additional parking spaces to the hospital campus. It will also enhance the image of the campus by eliminating old, dilapidated buildings, closing dead-end streets that separate off-site buildings from the hospital, and adding security measures such as increased parking lot lighting. 

The construction project is occurring in phases. The first phase involved tearing down two buildings located on Kentucky Avenue to make way for additional parking.  These buildings have stood vacant over the past year in preparation for the project.  Prior to being torn down, hospital Administration gave permission to the Effingham City Fire Department to use the buildings for practice drills.  Dennis Baker, Plant Services manager, shared, “Since we knew we were going to be tearing down the buildings, we were happy to provide the Fire Department an opportunity to practice their skills on the buildings before they were demolished.” 

In the coming weeks, the location of the houses and the grassy area on the corner of Maple Street and Temple Avenue will be re-graded to prepare for the parking expansion.  In addition, Linden Street and a portion of the Kentucky Street will be demolished and re-graded.  This will affect Physical Rehabilitation patients, who will be asked to enter the Physical Rehabilitation parking lot from West Kentucky off of Mulberry Street.  A map has been provided to hospital Physical Rehabilitation patients. 

Some colleague parking lots will be temporarily displaced during the construction to re-grade the area.  However, St. Anthony’s is making parking accommodations for those colleagues affected by the construction. Also included in the project will be a water retention basin on the corner of Mulberry Street and Temple Avenue.  This basin is being constructed to manage water flowing into the storm drains.

The entire project is expected to take three to four months, depending on the weather.  For questions about the construction project, contact Dennis Baker, Plant Service manager, at (217) 347-1245.  For more information about St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, visit St. Anthony’s web site at stanthonyshospital.org.