Birmingham Super Hospital takes off
The construction of Birmingham's first super Acute hospital is well underway. Costing around £550 million, the scheme is the largest outside London and with new Mental Health Facilities is due to open in 2008, followed by the Acute facilities in 2010. This massive project is already beginning to take shape.
The construction joint venture is an internal Balfour Beatty partnership of Balfour Beatty Construction Northern Ltd and Haden Young Ltd. There are 200 staff working at the 150,000m2 site, with staff and labour predicted to peak at 1200-1500 people.
Safety
Safety of everyone on site is paramount and the project team have implemented several schemes to achieve their target of zero accidents on site. This included sessions to raise safety awareness before the team moved on site, setting up a safety suggestion scheme, undertaking school visits to alert local children to the dangers of a construction site and establishing a safety award for contractors. The latter has led to £1500 being donated to charity in the first 10 months.
Together these initiatives have led to the project reaching a fantastic one million man hours worked on site without a reportable accident or incident. It is hoped that this record can be further improved by reaching the two million target by the middle of 2007.
Environment
Environmental impacts have also been kept to minimum and managed by the production and implementation of a Sustainable Construction Plan which has Planning Authority Approval and local resident interest.
Effort was made up front to design a balanced earthworks plan to minimise muck away from site. Crushed demolition materials have been used to reduce the amount of virgin material imports, modular construction and mandatory plasterboard recycling has also led to reduced waste.
The building has been designed to allow the optimum use of natural daylight and an energy efficient design has been incorporated into this state-of-the-art hospital. In addition the hospital has achieved an excellent BREEAM rating for all the buildings being provided.
Flora and fauna are being protected and enhanced and the design incorporates wildlife crossings, heated bat boxes and bird boxes to sustain and enhance current levels of activity.
The hospital is located adjacent to the site of the Metchley Roman Fort (a Scheduled Ancient Monument SAM) encompassing two distinct areas. One of the adjacent areas of special interest underwent a programme of excavation and recording of finds (preservation by record) before being handed over to the joint venture for use. The second area cannot be subjected to any new disturbance from construction activities and any unauthorised activity within the SAM could constitute a criminal offence. A 'permit to work' system is used for operations that need to be carried out immediately on the boundary of or adjacent to the SAM.
Construction noise has also been considered and consideration has been given to the level of vehicle movements including specific routeing and timing to avoid traffic stacking and congestion in residential areas as well as environmentally friendly fences to reduce noise levels.
Community
The local community needs have a focal point. The hospital is located in the heart of a residential area and the project plan has included a comprehensive liaison programme to keep the community informed. Local people also have access to the employment and training opportunities created by the project, via a learning hub.
Building Health, a partnership of organisations to serve as a clearing house for employment and training opportunities within healthcare has a purpose built facility on the hospital site.
The hub works with employers to build up a portfolio of entry level jobs, encourages local communities to apply for these jobs through community engagement activities and offers pre-employment help and training. Results to date demonstrate significant success with 45% of participants in a six week training programme successfully entering employment and a further 25% going on to meaningful further education. The Project has actively engaged with Building Health to employ local labour on the site.
The entire hospital project is due for completion in 2012 when it will accommodate over 1200 beds, 21% more than before, with 30 operating theatres and a daily footfall through the front entrance estimated to be between 2000-3000 people.