Construction work on the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is nearing completion, with the $30 million project expected to be finished by January.
HUP, located on Spruce Street between 33rd and 36th streets, has been undergoing renovations for the past three years. Funding for the project comes directly from HUP capital funds.
Now in its final phase, the work on the hospital was started in 2001 in order to add several rooms and suites to the hospital.
"This part of the project involved the addition of four new surgical operating rooms to the hospital," University Health System spokeswoman Rebecca Harmon said.
In addition to the four new operating rooms, the surgical capacity of HUP in general will be increased with the completion of this project. Eighteen recovery rooms have been added to the hospital to serve as waiting areas for patients before and after treatment.
"These rooms will serve as staging areas for patients to wait in before they enter the actual surgical suites, and for post-operation procedures as well," Chief Operating Officer for HUP Albert Black said.
Work accompanying these new rooms has included infrastructure improvements for surgical rooms and recovery rooms -- such as additional spaces to store instruments and medicine.
"This ancillary space includes a pharmacy in the operating rooms, which will enable us to do more cases," Black said.
Most of the initial work focused on these infrastructure renovations rather than the new rooms, and was not visible from the street.
Students started to notice the construction after fencing and scaffolding was applied to the outside of the hospital on Spruce Street over a year ago. These fences have blocked off the sidewalk and have forced people to walk in closed-off areas of the street.
This fencing should be removed by January, if not before then, according to Black.
"This construction has been really annoying, because people haven't been able to use the sidewalk for awhile, and I'm glad it will be over soon," College sophomore Jeremy Klein said.
