Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, July 11, 2026 – Construction has moved beyond announcements at the planned Hospital Civil de la Costa, where crews are now carrying out earthwork and deep-foundation preparation on land adjacent to the University of Guadalajara’s CUCosta campus.
The current phase includes installing 78 concrete foundation shafts extending 32 meters below ground, along with site clearing and rock-fill drainage work to stabilize the building area. The activity marks the first physical construction stage at a project that state and university officials have discussed since 2025.
The start also arrives earlier than one recent state timetable suggested. Vallarta Daily reported in June that Jalisco’s major public works calendar placed the anticipated construction start in September. Crews were already working at the site during the second week of July, after the governor and UdeG leadership announced that building operations would begin July 6.
The hospital was formally presented at CUCosta in April, when Vallarta Daily reported on the hospital-school model and its regional role. The planned complex covers 35,846 square meters across a ground floor and three upper levels.
Plans include 180 registered inpatient beds, 100 additional non-census beds, 13 specialized units, teaching and research space, clinical laboratories, diagnostic imaging, and 62 specialties and subspecialties. The University of Guadalajara’s project announcement said the hospital could serve more than 300,000 people across nine municipalities in Jalisco’s Costa Sierra Occidental region.
The project carries an estimated construction cost of 1.197 billion pesos. During the April presentation, Jalisco Health Secretary Héctor Raúl Pérez Gómez said the first 2026 stage had 400 million pesos assigned, split evenly between the state government and UdeG. He also warned that medical equipment could eventually cost more than the building itself.
The hospital-school model is central to the project. CUCosta already trains students in medicine, nursing, psychology, nutrition, and related fields. A hospital next to the campus would add clinical training capacity and specialist residencies outside Guadalajara, where much of Jalisco’s highest-level public care remains concentrated.
Officials have also presented the hospital as a means of reducing long-distance referrals from the coast. The planned service mix includes adult, pediatric, and neonatal intensive care, cardiology, trauma care, neurosurgery, and hemodynamics, according to comments Pérez Gómez gave during the April presentation.
A firm completion date remains unsettled in public reporting. Pérez Gómez said in April that construction could finish in December 2027, following an estimated 20-month build period. A Puerto Vallarta municipal post later listed December 31, 2028. Neither date appeared in the latest notice confirming foundation work.
