THUNDER BAY — There's no parking structure on the horizon, but Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is working to increase the capacity of its parking lots by almost 10 per cent.
The hospital recently hired a contractor to remove the trees from a large area stretching from the edge of existing parking lot A2 to Golf Links Road.
This spring, construction will commence on an expansion to that parking lot which will create about 200 new stalls.
Around the perimeter of the hospital, existing lots have a capacity of 2,015 vehicles.
A hospital spokesperson said Monday that the hospital made the decision to address parking constraints.
"An assessment of parking capacity considered maximizing utility, increasing patient/visitor access and convenience, optimizing parking and vehicular movement, maintaining affordability for patients and staff, and anticipating future needs," he said.
That assessment also included the feasibility of building a multi-level parking structure.
But that option was discarded since parking structures "are considerably more expensive to build and maintain as compared to a typical paved parking lot," the spokesperson explained.
