How an Off-Site Solution is Meeting the Design, Programme and Logistics Challenges at Colchester General Hospital
A new ProCure21 project at Colchester General Hospital is the biggest development in the hospital’s recent history. In this article, we look at its construction challenges and design.
Now well advanced, the £20m ProCure21
contract for a new paediatric department, elective care centre and surgical
ward was awarded to Principal Supply Chain Partner, Kier Eastern in late 2009.
The new 5,600sqm building has to be fully operational to provide the bed capacity requirement for the start of the Trust’s peak winter period in October 2010. This significantly reduced the time available for construction. The site is also highly constrained with very little space for the storage of materials, plant and equipment, and the building footprint actually exceeded the site until the roads were reconfigured.
Kier therefore took the decision to use an off-site solution for the project, reducing the programme time by around six months, to the benefit of patient care. A £10m subcontract was awarded to off-site specialists and Portakabin subsidiary Yorkon for the manufacture, installation and fitting out of the building. The second and final phase of module cranage has just been completed.
Commenting on the use of off-site construction, Paul Kenworthy, Contracts Manager at Kier Eastern, said, “A team from Kier visited the Yorkon production centre and one of their completed projects at the outset, and were impressed with the quality and approach. Modular construction is providing a fast track site solution, safer working conditions and a considerable reduction in waste sent to landfill.”
A Highly Complex Modular Layout
The shape of the site demanded one of the
most complex modular layouts Yorkon has ever undertaken.
Designed by Tangram Architects, the three-storey building had to accommodate a range of hospital facilities on an irregular-shaped site. Facilities will include an elective care centre, 68 inpatient beds, consultation and treatment rooms, nurses’ station, isolation beds, administrative offices, a school room, children’s dining room, utility room, stores, toilets and ancillary rooms.
A key design requirement was for the building to be linked to the main hospital in several different areas, including outpatients at ground floor, isolation at first floor and the main hospital ‘street’.
Part of the site was occupied by an existing ward building. The off-site approach allowed this facility to remain in use for longer, and with the module cranage and installation carried out in two phases beginning at the site extremities, it was in use until just days before the first modules arrived on site.
148 steel-framed modules up to 14m long and 3.3m wide, and each weighing up to 12 tonnes, were delivered and installed in a total of 17 days. The units were partially fitted out off site, including internal partitioning and first fix M&E services.
The new Yorkon pre-installed concrete floor
has been used in all the modules – the first time this award-winning technology
has been used for a complete building.
It is an innovative modular solution ideal for high traffic areas and to
accommodate sensitive hospital equipment.
Challenging
Logistics
The new building is located on a very constrained
hospital site. The logistics of the
project, particularly for the two module delivery phases, required careful
planning between the Trust, Kier and Yorkon.
Traffic had to be managed, car parking reconfigured, and two routes for
the blue light ambulance zone had to be maintained at all times. The air ambulance also had to be taken into
consideration.
The module delivery could only take place outside the rush hour to minimise disruption locally, and a team of 10 site staff were involved in bringing each module to the site. A dry run with a lorry and fully extended trailer unit was also completed in advance of the actual delivery and installation to test the procedures.
As there was no storage space on the site, the modules were delivered containing any palletised materials that were required.
A Welcoming Patient Environment
The building has been carefully designed to create an attractive and welcoming environment for staff and patients, particularly given its prominent location near the entrance to the hospital site.
The paediatric ward is located along the south side of the site, which gives a more open aspect to the bedrooms, and is arranged around a large central courtyard that provides a protected play area and sensory garden.
The department will also have multi-coloured and patterned flooring, feature walls in bright colours, murals and a distinctive design for the reception and nurses’ station, which as well as creating a cheerful interior, will assist in way finding.
An important specification requirement was for the layout of the four-bed bays to provide a window for each bed space.
Externally, the building will have deeply
articulated façades finished in a palette of materials, including white render,
vertical bands of rainscreen cladding and curtain walling. This will give the new facilities an
independent identity.
The new building will be completed this
autumn after just seven months on site.
