York-based Portakabin Group has handed over a £2m construction contract after less than five months working on site.
The new four-storey building will provide space for office support staff at the University Hospital Southampton and will also create room for further development.
The space will now house around 85 staff from the Medical Physics and Dietics teams who were relocating from outdated facilities.
That accommodation could then be demolished to allow construction work to start on a new seven-storey car park. The upper two floors of the office scheme will provide additional space for the Trust’s future expansion without any further impact on the hospital site.
Portakabin manufactured the 1,300m2 facility off site in York using a Yorkon solution and building modules were craned into position around 70 per cent fitted out, with partitions, plumbing and electrics pre-installed in the factory to further reduce work on site.
As the site was in the centre of the hospital and was located near to a busy road, fast completion was essential.
Portakabin had to undertake complex logistics and meticulous planning throughout to manage traffic flows and maintain access at all times for bus and ambulance routes and for around 800 deliveries each day along the road immediately adjacent to the site.
Neil Haskell, senior project manager at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The restricted time to build this scheme was the key driver for modular construction.
“Site-based building methods could not have delivered the building in the timeframe we had, and were not feasible on such a tight site. The space for the new facility was extremely limited and so lent itself well to moving as much of the construction into the factory as possible.
“The use of a Yorkon solution also resulted in much less disruption because most of the fitting out was done off site and we were able to maintain access 24/7.”
Portakabin worked on the project with Interserve Prime, which is in a joint venture partnership with the Trust to develop a programme of new hospital facilities. This will enhance the patient, visitor and staff experience and will generate an income that can be reinvested into frontline patient services.
Ben Gwilliam, development manager for Interserve Prime said: “This scheme was on the critical path for a wider project and so was very programme-driven. We needed to have the new offices fully operational as soon as possible for the relocation of staff from various departments.
“Portakabin delivered the building on time, met all the requirements for functionality and layout, and in an extremely tight timescale. This allowed us to progress other essential development works for the hospital, to the benefit of patients and staff.
“We have been very impressed with the Portakabin team throughout. They provided the full range of construction services, including design, ground works and fitting out. We would certainly recommend Yorkon offsite solutions and the services and approach from Portakabin, to others.”
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