With some scoops from gold-painted shovels, work got underway Monday on the first phase of a $50-million expansion project at Whidbey General Hospital in Coupeville.

Approximately 75 hospital staff members, administration and local dignitaries gathered in the chilly morning air to celebrate the beginning of the project, which is being paid for with a bond passed by voters in 2013.

The groundbreaking ceremony marked the start of a new parking area northeast of the hospital. It will accommodate cars currently parking where the wing is to be built, on the hospital’s south side. The helipad in front of the hospital will be removed and a new one built.

A phalanx of gold-painted shovels leaned against a chain-link fence surrounding the construction site.

First higher-ranking guests, then anyone in the crowd, were invited to shovel a spadeful of dirt from one part of a pile to another. Then, the entire crowd gathered behind a banner celebrating the event. The design features a 60,000-square-foot, 39-bed wing. The wing would be broken into segments to avoid an industrial look.

Work on the building is expected to begin early next year.