State: Bioscience CT projects on target

Photo | Contributed UConn Health Center's new $203 million outpatient center is nearly fully enclosed with glass sheet windows.

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After 18 months of initial construction, UConn Health Center officials say Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's ambitious $864 billion Bioscience Connecticut projects in Farmington remain on schedule and on budget.

Since the first groundbreaking in summer 2012, the projects have created nearly 1,700 construction jobs. Almost 80 percent of the contracts have been awarded to Connecticut companies, UConn Health Center officials said.

Bioscience Connecticut includes several major projects on the UConn Health Center campus including construction of a new patient tower and ambulatory care center. About 238,000 square feet of existing research facilities are being renovated and 28,000 square feet of new incubator space will be created.

The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine is also building a 189,000-square-foot research center scheduled to open this fall.

Construction of the new patient tower is on pace to be finished by early 2016, officials said. Structural steel has been going up for a month, and the skeleton of the new emergency department and operating room suite is taking shape. The final phase of the project involves moving hospital operations into the new tower and renovating the current John Dempsey Hospital.

Meanwhile, the eight-story, 300,000-square-foot ambulatory care center is nearly enclosed. Next step is completion of exterior glass and glazing, which will allow interior construction to proceed, officials said.

A newly built, 1,400 space parking garage opened in November and research lab renovations on the campus' “L” building are underway, officials said.