The site that will become a new 60,000-square-foot wing at Whidbey General Hospital is starting to take shape.

Workers erected the first steel beams and passersby should notice the skeleton of the building going up in the coming weeks from as far away as Highway 20.

The sounds of hammer against steel echoing across fields and down streets signal the next phase of the project as the walls rise.

“This is huge,” said George Senerth, executive director of Facilities and Plant Engineering at the hospital. “We are hoping by the end of June we’ll have all the erected steel up.”

Workers also poured 300 yards of concrete and installed underground plumbing. A staging area is prepared for large quantities of steel to be delivered.

Work is moving along at a good pace, he said.

On May 1, officials plan to have a crew repave the main driveway from Main Street as well as the entrance to the Emergency Department. Long term lane closures are not anticipated during this phase of the work.

By spring next year, officials expect the 39 bed new wing to be complete. It will feature medical and surgical inpatient care, patients under observation, the family birthplace and the intensive care unit.

When the wing is complete, workers will turn what’s now the birth center and intensive care unit into a new pre- and post-operation area with individual preparation and recovery rooms.

Voters in 2013 approved a $50-million bond to pay for the project.