After nearly five months of delays because of structural issues, construction to expand the St. David’s Georgetown Hospital intensive care unit, or ICU, is underway, hospital CEO Hugh Brown said.

The project will more than double the size of the ICU, which has six beds. After completion the project will have nine critical care beds, including two isolation rooms that will allow doctors to separate and treat patients with contagious diseases.

Brown said the space will also include state-of-the-art technology and monitoring equipment as well as space for five additional treatment beds as needed and a dedicated ICU waiting room.

Crews are working to reinforce the second-floor unit to allow for the additional weight of the expanded unit, he said.

Additional structural reinforcements will also be added underneath the building, he said.

Construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016, Brown said.

Between 2011 and 2014 the hospital’s ICU had a 68 percent increase in its number of critical care patient days, a unit of measure that equals one person in the hospital for one day, Brown said.