CHAPEL HILL, NC — Global development and construction firm Skanska announces it will construct the new UNC Hospitals’ Surgical Tower located in the center of the UNC Healthcare campus. The 335,000-square-foot project will cost $257 million, and Skanska is providing preconstruction and construction management at risk services. When completed in 2022, the surgical tower will be the largest building on UNC Hospitals Chapel Hill campus.

The seven-story tower will include a basement level and will house 24 operating rooms, two hybrid operating rooms, with 56 pre- and post-operating rooms, as well as two floors of ICU space with 56 beds. The building will also include a main reception and visitor waiting areas on each floor; central processing; offices and conference rooms; an indoor and outdoor staff lounge; and staff locker rooms.

“The mission of UNC Health Care is to promote the health and well-being of the people of North Carolina,” said Janet Hadar, President of UNC Medical Center. “The new surgical tower will only enhance our ability to provide the highest quality surgical and medical care for the people of our state.”

The project will be constructed in the following phases:

• Phase one: Site development work and new connector basement construction
• Phase two: Deep foundations
• Phase three: Main Surgical Tower building work

Site development work includes extensive utility relocations, an upgraded storm and sanitary system, new chilled water and steam for the new tower and adjacent buildings, and new electrical duct bank from a future generator plant.

“This project lives up to Skanska’s purpose, ‘Building for a Better Society.’ It will provide UNC Health Care with a state-of-the-art facility to better serve its patients, their families and the health professionals who work there,” said Greg Peele, Executive Vice President responsible for Skanska’s North Carolina and Virginia building operations, which is overseeing the project.

The project will also provide patient drop-off canopies at the Surgical Tower and the existing Children’s Hospital. Skanska will additionally construct two overhead pedestrian bridges that connect existing parking decks and the Dental School building to the Surgical Tower. The project also includes a three-story service connector, renovation work at the existing Ambulatory Patient Care Facility and expansion of the café in the existing part of the hospital.