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Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital has received state approval for a $498 million expansion that will include a new building, new surgical suites, more patient beds, and an expanded ED.

The project unanimously was approved by the Massachusetts Public Health Council. Hospital officials expect to begin demolishing existing campus facilities late this year and break ground on a new, 10-story building by May 2008. The new building should be ready by mid-2011.

The construction project will increase the hospital’s operating rooms from 52 to 71 and patient beds from 902 to 1,052.

“There are [patient] capacity issues, and the focus here is solving the problems of ambulance diversion and providing beds,” says David Hanitchak, Mass General’s director of planning and construction.