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‘Courtyards boost the amount of natural light entering the hospital, which is important for the patients’ sense of wellbeing’
The Balfour Beatty team “You’ve got flashing blue light emergencies happening here
daily and the potential to create disruption to the existing hos- pital was massive unless we had had very careful planning and co-ordination,” says Martin. Having an A&E department on hand might sound useful in
the case of building site accidents, but this has not been an issue – even with a workforce peaking at 1,200 in the middle of last year.
Keep the noise down!
One technique for floor slabs is to power-float concrete, with machines passing blades over it to get the floor absolutely flat and smooth. Once the concrete starts to go off, the machine operators have to stay with it – which might take 12-16 hours and makes a great deal of noise. Instead it was decided to lay the slabs, float-finish them to a rough level, then do a self-levelling screed on top of them – a much quieter operation that creates a perfectly flat floor. The joint venture monitored demolition noise and dust,
and had mitigating actions ready to kick in if they exceeded certain thresholds. These have included protective walls, an on-site road-sweeper, and an on-site fire tender to dowse construction materials if dust was rising.
“We have a fantastic safety record here,” Martin points out.
“We run a very tight ship and we have good contractors. We’ve got through three million man-hours without any significant accidents. In fact, after one six-month period without even a scratch, we had a hog roast for the whole team to celebrate.” Balfour Beatty’s Zero Harm programme focuses on safety
awareness, and the site won a RoSPA Gold Award for Occupational Health and Safety last year – as well as a Considerate Constructors Silver Award and a Constructing Excellence Leadership in People Development Award. “There’s a dedicated road all round the site, but we have
some close neighbours to consider,” says Martin. “Noise, dust, activities and congestion all have to be planned and restricted.” Detailed plans were discussed at each stage of the design
process with the NHS Trust and its clinical user groups. For Martin it has been the most challenging construction pro- gramme in his 30 years in the industry. “Half of the building is reinforced concrete and the other
half is steel-framed, because of the weight and flat slab con- struction,” he says. “The acute side of the hospital is where the more intensive mechanical and electrical [M&E] work is required, so we constructed it with reinforced concrete, while the steel side is where all the inpatient beds are.” Between the concrete frame and steel frame buildings is the central atrium, with a roof of exposed glulam (glue-laminated
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