Construction is underway on the future St. Mary’s Medical Campus at the intersection of U.S. 52 and State Route 141 in Ironton.

Workers are putting together the steel framing on what will be a 46,000- square-foot medical campus that offers 24-hour emergency services.

Underground utilities are also being installed at the site.

The project is on schedule to be completed in the late spring of 2012, said Tim Parnell, St. Mary’s vice president for support services, development and planning. “Things are going very well.”

“We’re very pleased with the progress so far. In spite of wet weather the contractor came up with a plan to divert water away from the site and keep it on schedule.”

R.W. Setterlin Building Company of Columbus is the general contractor and Solid Rock is doing the site work.

Dr. Kimberly Oxley, a pediatric physician from the Ironton medical clinic of the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization, is practicing from a modular office set up near the construction site.

After the medical campus opens next year, the CAO’s medical clinic will occupy most of its second floor, CAO Assistant Director Ralph Kline said.

The CAO will have a pediatric unit and a general practice unit. St. Mary’s Medical Center will also have a section of the second floor.

The move will not affect the CAO’s Second Street clinic, though. It will stay open.

Kline said the additional space will alleviate overcrowding at the clinic.

“We’re just in dire need of space,” he said.

When the medical campus is open, the multi-million dollar facility will provide round-the-clock emergency services and, if needed, transport to a hospital of the patient’s choice. There will also be physicians’ offices and laboratory and imaging services.

The medical campus will create approximately 50 healthcare jobs.