New office facility, Christie Hospital, Manchester

"We needed to use fast track construction to accommodate the delivery schedule for the new equipment. The modular building method will allow us to achieve the challenging time frame without the need for decanting whilst on a very constrained site."

Christie Hospital NHS Trust is an international leader in cancer research and development. The trust had a need for a new facility on the roof of the existing radiotherapy building at Christie Hospital in Manchester – the largest cancer treatment centre of its kind in Europe.

The new building would provide facilities for radiotherapy services and general administration, which are to be relocated to accommodate the building of a £750,000 state-of-the-art linear accelerator to be used in the treatment of cancer.

The £1 million contract for a new air conditioned, purpose-designed modular building was placed with Yorkon by HBG Construction. The scheme is Yorkon's first NHS ProCure 21 project.

The two-storey facility, which will be linked to the main hospital building, was manufactured off-site by Yorkon in York. It was craned into position as 24, nine metre long steel-framed modules above the existing radiotherapy building. This operation was carried out over two weekends using a 500-tonne crane to avoid the need for decanting of wards and the radiotherapy department, minimising any disruption to patient care and the sensitive equipment involved in the treatment of cancer.

The project is part of a £12m redevelopment programme being undertaken for the Trust by ProCure 21 partner HBG Construction. The architects are Taylor Young.

Comments from the Client

"This project is very time critical. We needed to use fast track construction to accommodate the delivery schedule for the new equipment. The modular building method will allow us to achieve the challenging time frame without the need for decanting whilst on a very constrained site."