J&H Construction signs contract for medical campus

Published 10:16 am Thursday, September 23, 2010

IRONTON — It has been five years in the making and now it is all coming together.

A new St. Mary’s Medical Campus for Lawrence County will be located at the intersection of U.S. State Route 52 and Route 141 near the Ohio University Southern Campus.

Yesterday marked the first official step in the construction process with the signing of a phase one contract.

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J & H Construction will be doing the excavating work which will take 90 days and clear the way for actual construction to begin early in 2011.

Work on the $246,000 phase one project will begin Monday with equipment being moved to the worksite this Friday by J & H Construction.

The new medical facility comes to fruition through a multiple partnership between the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation, the Lawrence County Community Action Corporation, the Lawrence County Commission and the Lawrence County Port Authority. All four of these agencies have been primary players in the realization of this unique venture. St Mary’s Medical Center came on board as a major facilitator of the overall process.

The Executive Director of the Greater Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Bill Dingus,

cited today’s contract signing as the beginning of something big. He said “This is a great day with the realization that very soon, Lawrence County will have full emergency room services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Eventually, the project will bring 50 health care jobs and an undetermined number of construction jobs to Lawrence County.