While medical students learn about surgical procedures in rooms just down the hall, part of the Magnuson Health Sciences Center is being prepped for a major surgery of its own.

A project to reinforce the infrastructure in the G and H wings of Health Sciences, with an estimated price tag of nearly $40 million, is scheduled to begin within a few months.

The center's upgrades are primarily for earthquake safety, but will also include renovations to electrical, plumbing and ventilation systems to better serve the high-tech labs the center houses.

"These are old buildings ... and there are some very modern laboratories in that space," said Joel Matulys, the project manager from the UW Capital Projects office.

Many offices, labs and corridors will be closed during construction, a process complicated by the wings' central locations. To help alleviate the impact of these closures, the University has worked closely with Skanska — the construction company hired for the project — to find ways to take the process one step at a time, leaving access to as many locations as possible for as long as they can.

"It's more like laser surgery ... [T]he idea is not to impact any more than we absolutely have to," Matulys said.

Skanska is working as both general contractor and construction manager — traditionally two separate roles for a project this size. This dual role allowed the company to contribute advice much earlier in the process than contractors generally do.

"All the way through the project, they've been on the design team, and have been advising our engineers and architects," Matulys said. "Because of that, we've done a lot of innovative things that have saved a lot of money and delivered the same end, but in a much more efficient way."

Skanska representative Rick Brayton echoed this sentiment.

"We're working as a team to try to make this a more successful project and to make sure that they don't get some ludicrous lump sum bid at the end where they just don't have the funding," he said.

Staging areas for contractor and construction crews will remain outside Foege Hall and the I wing of Health Sciences for the duration of the project.

Reach reporter Trevor Klein at news@thedaily.washington.edu.