Wernick Buildings’ ability to deliver a new critical decision unit – where patients can initially be cared for while assessed to determine where in the hospital they should be treated – in lightning-fast time, recently saw the company win the tender for such a building at the Princess Royal University Hospital near Orpington in Kent.
Alongside being needed fast, the new building’s location was vital; the best position was in the existing ambulance bay adjacent to the Accident and Emergency ward. However, this location offered several construction challenges – ‘hemmed in on three of its four sides’, and sitting partly above the entrance to the underground car park, any solution would need to overcome severely limited space and weight distribution issues
.Senior building surveyor, Wayne Everitt, from architects and surveyors, Wilby and Burnett, said: “A traditional build would have been over the bridge design load. With modular construction we also had the advantages of rapid installation, and the ability to remove / adapt the structure with minimal disruption.”
A specially designed cantilever system of steel beams supporting the remaining third resolved the problem of how to prepare foundations when only two-thirds of the building could rest on solid ground. Wernick added: “Some of the difficulties faced were negated simply by modular construction’s nature. As the modular bays were built off site, the only challenge posed by the limited space was during craning. There was just enough space to allow the crane to sit within the hospital boundaries, and to drop in the eight modules from the lorries on the adjacent road.”
With the modules in place, and a link established to the existing building, the final stages of fitting out could begin, bringing the unit up to HTM and DDA compliance. The fit-out included bedhead trunking incorporating medical gases, nurse call systems, access control and CCTV, fire escape ramps, nurse stations, and air-conditioning.
The project was completed within eight weeks from breaking ground, including all services connections to the main hospital.
