Part of the five-year construction and renovation project at Norton Audubon Hospital has reached a significant milestone with the completion of a new tower. It opened in April and features 74 additional private patient rooms for intensive care, open heart and progressive cardiac care.

Norton Healthcare is investing $125 million in the project, which focuses on emergency and surgery department renovations and expansion — including four new operating rooms — plus a new entry for better patient access and refurbishing existing patient rooms on three floors.

“Overall, the construction project is moving right along schedule, and we are looking forward to a completion date in 2020,” said Jon D. Cooper, chief administrative officer, Norton Audubon Hospital.

Patients and visitors also will notice the addition of a courtyard with green space and a limestone sculpture created by local artist Mike McCarthy located outside the new main entrance. Titled “Cor Liberum,” which translates to “heart for freedom” in Latin, the sculpture reflects Norton Audubon’s history, starting with its beginning as St. Joseph Infirmary, while also paying homage to its strong background as a cardiac facility. Surrounded by meditation benches and a stone walking path, the artwork provides remembrance of the hospital’s namesake,famed naturalist John James Audubon, and demonstrates the hospital’s focus on being a family-oriented facility that serves our community.

The construction project kicked off in May 2016.