Whiting-Turner breaks ground on $880M Pennsylvania hospital expansion

Danville, Pennsylvania-based healthcare consortium Geisinger has broken ground on its expansion and modernization project at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, according to a May 13 news release. 

Philadelphia-based architect EwingCole and Baltimore-based general contractor Whiting-Turner are designing and building the project, according to a EwingCole news release. The $880 million project includes the modernization of the hospital campus and the emergency department in particular, according to the release. 

The centerpiece of the expansion is the construction of an 11-story tower near the front of the hospital, which will feature a new, larger emergency room that will double the square footage of the current space and increase the number of beds from 45 to 60. 

Additionally, the project will transition the hospital to 100% private rooms for adult medical-surgical units, per the news release. As part of the tower project, the contractor will also update operating suites and intensive care units.

Alongside medical facilities, the construction team will build a multi-level parking garage adjacent to the new tower. It follows a recently completed road project that created a more efficient traffic pattern in front of the hospital and made room for the expansion, per the news release.

In recent years, Geisinger has tapped several contractors for various projects in Pennsylvania that include:

Site preparations in front of the hospital are already underway and foundation work is planned to start this summer, according to the release. The tower is expected to be complete and open to patients by 2029.