News Releases
Balfour Beatty hands over the first phase of the North Durham General Hospital
14 Dec 2000Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction and services group, announces today that the first phase of the North Durham General Hospital PFI project at Dryburn in Durham has been completed and handed over to the client, Consort Healthcare, on schedule and to budget. Consort and the Trust will now commence the final clinical fit-out and preparations for service.
The project, valued at £96 million and scheduled for final completion in November 2001, will transfer the first patients from the existing hospital to the new state-of-the-art 454-bed hospital in spring 2001.
The design and construction of the project is being carried out by Balfour Haden, a joint venture between Balfour Beatty subsidiaries, Balfour Beatty Construction and Haden Young, for Consort Healthcare of which Balfour Beatty is a 50% shareholder with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Another Balfour Beatty subsidiary, Haden Building Management, will be responsible for the non-clinical operational services in the new hospital.
Commenting today, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Mike Welton said: “This is an important milestone for the portfolio of PFI healthcare projects which Balfour Beatty has in hand, and demonstrates the significant advantages of integrating design, construction and services which the PFI process allows.
“The asset base represented by our full PFI portfolio, including two other hospitals, three roads and power, education and water concessions, is an increasingly important part of the business and represents significant embedded value for the group”.
Balfour Beatty is amongst the most successful entrants into the UK’s privately financed infrastructure market. Its portfolio of projects in which it is actively involved as a manager and service provider includes three hospitals (North Durham Hospital, New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the University College London Hospital), three roads (A30/A35 in Devon and Dorset, A50 in Derbyshire and A1/M1 Link in Yorkshire), Stoke Schools PFI, through Transform Schools, Aberdeen Waste Water Project, through Aberdeen Environmental Services and three power projects including Seeboard Powerlink, which provides the power for the London Underground system.
Last week Powerlink, a joint venture between Balfour Beatty, ABB and Seeboard, was awarded the Utility Industry Achievement Award for Safety in 2000. Balfour Beatty and Seeboard are members of Metronet, a consortium bidding for PPP concessions for the London Underground.
For further information, please contact:
Tim Sharp
Corporate Communications
Tel: 020 7216 6884
