LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - State Historian James Klotter sees the
health-related expansions in coming years at the University of
Kentucky and the University of Louisville as unparalleled in recent
times.

The roughly five (b) billion-dollar projects to expand hospital and health-research facilities over the next 15 to 20 years could affect the state and its economy for decades to come.

Klotter says other Kentucky undertakings in recent memory pale alongside the efforts at U-K and U-of-L.

Work is under way on a plan to replace the aging U-K Hospital with a bigger facility and create a whole new "medical campus of the future" for education and research.

One major feature will be a new home for U-K's College of Pharmacy. It will be the world's biggest pharmacy education building when it opens in 2010. Total projected cost is more than two-and-a-half (b) billion dollars.

Not to be outdone, U-of-L last month unveiled a plan to expand its life sciences campus. The plan includes the creation of a new research park on property that was the site of a farmers market for more than a century. The total projected cost is two-and-a-half (b) billion dollars.

Officials at both schools predict the plans will improve health care for Kentuckians. They say it will also boost training of doctors, pharmacists and other professionals; increase medical research; and help create and attract new high-tech, life-sciences companies that would provide thousands of high-paying jobs.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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