Ellington

Construction is now under way for the new Alexian Health and Rehabilitation Center.

The project, for which construction actually began a few weeks ago, even though the official groundbreaking was held last week, is slated to take 20 months to complete. Residents of James Boulevard and the surrounding area, can expect to be kept in the loop during the ongoing construction, according to Alexian officials.

“Obviously, there is going to be construction traffic,” said Alexian Brothers Senior Ministries Regional Director of Marking Kim Goodwin. “But I know our leaders in charge of the project have … taken in concerns that neighbors have and are working with them.”

A website, alexian4signalmtn.com, is available to the public for weekly updates on construction as well as photos of the progress. Monthly meetings between Morgan Construction, the company in charge of building the center, and residents that live in the area will also be held so that they can ask any questions they may have. Dates and times for those meetings will be announced on the website.

Upon its expected completion in April/May 2013, the 100,000-square-foot Health and Rehabilitation Center — double the size of the existing center — will not necessarily add new residents because the rooms within will be constructed to house one resident each, so there should not be an influx of traffic, said Goodwin.

Town of Signal Mountain Mayor Bill Lusk attended the groundbreaking ceremony and said he thought the new center will be a “wonderful addition to the community,” although it may delay some renovations to James Boulevard that have been discussed as a part of split-grant transportation improvement plans.

“There will probably be some dust and some noise [for the neighborhood],” said Lusk. “And [the construction may] delay [planned] repairs to James Boulevard, but we’ll continue the engineering process.”

Goodwin said anyone can reach her at her direct line, 886-0647, or call the hotline at 886-0700 with any concerns that they may have about the ongoing project.