CHICAGO—Mortenson Construction has broken ground on a three-year, $200 million renovation and expansion of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in suburban Barrington. Advocate chose the Chicago-based builder as their preferred provider in 2010, and this effort will almost certainly end up as one of the largest projects it undertakes.

Mortenson officials say they aim to modernize the 169-bed Good Shepherd, located at 450 W. Highway 22, and add 229,013-square-feet of space while renovating another 154,507-square-feet. The health needs of the surrounding community have evolved, they add, and the hospital will get more operating rooms and intensive care beds. Other upgrades will include replacing the double-level entry and exit with a single main entrance hall, consolidating patient services including admissions and discharges in one area and converting all patient rooms into single occupancy.

"Advocate's renovation is designed to deliver more health services, more easily to its community,” says Greg Werner, vice president and head of Mortenson's Chicago office. “The modernization is built around patients and staff, to improve care through greater convenience, comfort and accessibility. This intent is clear in every change, from rerouting the roads on its property to simplify traffic flow to providing wireless connectivity throughout the building to reducing the steps from the nursing stations to patients' rooms."