St. Luke’s University Health Network broke ground Thursday on its new St. Luke’s Carbon Campus near Lehighton.
Situated on more than 100 acres at the intersection of Fairyland and Harrity roads in Franklin Township, Carbon County, the new $80 million campus will provide area residents local access to a range of specialty services in a full-service, three-story, 155,000-square-foot hospital.
“What a great day for Carbon County! We are breaking ground for the creation of a regional medical center that will provide comprehensive state of the art care for the residents of this county for generations to come,” said John Nespoli, President of St. Luke’s Gnaden Huetten Campus in Lehighton. “St. Luke’s is all about community-based care and keeping care close to home.”
Built with American steel, the St. Luke’s Carbon Campus will be equipped with 80 beds, 20 emergency department exam rooms, three operating rooms and two OR procedure rooms. Specialty services will include trauma, cardiology, neurology and radiology, among others.
At its peak, construction of the Carbon Campus will employ more than 200 construction workers through dozens of contractors, injecting a powerful economic stimulus into the local economy. Upon completion, the hospital will sustain hundreds of permanent, family-supporting jobs.
Work on the new campus begins as St. Luke’s enters the final stages of construction on two other new hospitals and a new hospital wing. The St. Luke’s Upper Bucks Campus outside Quakertown, the Geisinger St. Luke’s Hospital in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, and the Women and Babies Pavilion at the Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township are on schedule to open this fall and winter.
Note: This local health news is brought to you in partnership with St. Luke’s University Health Network.