Duke Health and UNC Health, the Triangle's two largest health care systems, officially announced Tuesday that they will partner together to build the state's first freestanding children's hospital here.

Two North Carolina-based university health systems plan to construct the state's first standalone children's hospital — an undertaking that its boosters said will change lives physically and economically for decades to come.

The facility, called “N.C. Children’s,” was characterized as a “decade-long goal” for both institutions and is expected to lessen the strain on other regional facilities amid increased demand for care.