News

23/03/2007 – Yorkon Wins New Healthcare Contracts Worth Around £8m

Award-winning off-site construction specialist and Portakabin subsidiary, Yorkon, has won a series of new contracts in the health sector, worth in the region of £8m.

Skanska has appointed Yorkon to manufacture and fit out a new 136-bed ward building at Walsall Manor Hospital. The £5m contract forms part of the advance works package for the £170m redevelopment of the hospital to be completed under the Private Finance Initiative, replacing outdated buildings with state-of-the-art facilities for patient care.

Due for completion in October this year, the four-storey ward project will comprise 104 steel-framed building modules manufactured off-site in York and craned into position in three phases. Facilities will include a combination of six-bed wards and single bedrooms, nurse base stations on each floor, treatment suites, ward kitchen, offices, day room and relatives room.

Yorkon has been awarded a £2.6m ProCure21 contract for Interserve, for the off-site construction of a 42-bed emergency assessment unit at the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton.

Also scheduled for completion in October, the 1,710sqm single-storey extension to the existing department will expand the number of assessment beds on the Stockton site and is part of the Government’s drive to reduce waiting times for emergency cases.

The building will provide six high dependency beds, four-bed wards and ensuite single rooms, one isolation bed, dirty and clean utilities, waiting areas, quiet room, kitchen, staff changing facilities, consulting rooms, nurse base stations and ward manager’s office.

The third contract is to provide an MRI suite at Princess Elizabeth Hospital near St Peter Port in Guernsey. The project for the Avenue Building Company is Yorkon’s third for the contractor.

The use of off-site construction for each of these new healthcare schemes will minimise disruption to patient care during the build programme and will reduce completion time by up to 50 per cent, allowing earlier occupation and treatment provision. Other benefits include enhanced thermal performance, lower running costs, reductions in carbon emissions, and greater predictability of time and cost.

Editor’s Notes

Yorkon has an extensive track record of delivering new healthcare facilities, ranging from complete hospitals to health centres, independent treatment centres, ward accommodation extensions, theatre blocks and day surgery units.
The Yorkon approach to off-site construction offers a number of clear advantages over site-based building methods:

- improved thermal efficiency
- less waste
- programme times reduced by up to 50 per cent
- greater cost control
- less disruption to patient care
- safety improved on site
- earlier occupation
- guaranteed quality
- greater design flexibility
- less risk for the client – more than 96 per cent of Yorkon projects have been completed on time and 94 per cent on budget over the past five years – well exceeding construction industry averages.
Off-site construction is also a highly sustainable building method:

- Up to 67 per cent less energy is required to produce a modular building compared to an equivalent traditionally built project (source: Arup Research and Development)
- Yorkon, as part of the Portakabin Group, is the first modular manufacturer to commit to meeting the challenges set out in the Sustainability Charter introduced by the Major Contractors Group.
Off-site construction involves the manufacture of steel-framed modules in a controlled factory environment, using production line technology, whilst the foundation works are completed on site. The modules are delivered to site by road where they are craned into position in just a few days ready for fitting out.