BATON ROUGE - Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge broke ground on a new children’s hospital Thursday.

The new freestanding OLOL Children’s hospital will be built on 66 acres near Essen and Bluebonnet near the main OLOL campus in Baton Rouge.

The new 350,000 square foot children’s hospital will have six floors including a pediatric emergency room, a surgical unit and playrooms on every floor.

“After more than a decade of planning, the strategic vision to design and build a hospital that will change the lives of Louisiana’s children is coming to fruition. We know that children have unique needs and require specialized care in an environment built just for them,” OLOL CEO Scott Wester said.

Wester says OLOL wanted to build a hospital that furthers advance care for children as well as train future Louisiana pediatricians.

“Children make up nearly twenty-five percent of Louisiana’s population and these children are our future. We recognize our role and responsibility to provide the necessary tools for our youth to grow into healthy adults,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shaun Kemmerly said.

OLOL Children’s Hospital currently operates a hospital within a hospital model inside OLOL Regional Medical Center.

The hospital is expected to cost $230 million and is expected to be completed in late 2018.