News
23/02/06 ISG Pearce wins Built-in Quality Award
Bristol-based contractor, ISG Pearce, has won a prestigious Built-In Quality Award from Newport City Council for its £4.2 million Cardiology Unit project at Royal Gwent Hospital.
The Built-In Quality Awards are presented annually by the Council and are particularly designed to reward excellence in construction, recognising those companies that put customer satisfaction high on their agenda.
One of three projects short listed in the Large Commercial/ Industrial category, the new Cardiology and Radiology Unit was constructed on the roof of the existing hospital building; a particularly challenging task given that the hospital had to remain fully operational throughout the build programme.
Paul Hogan, ISG Pearce’s project manager, explained some of the project’s complexities: “Building a completely new unit on top of a 60 year-old building, presented quite a number of technical and logistical challenges for the team, not least access to the construction area, which was severely restricted.
“To reduce the amount of construction required on site - and to minimise the load imposed by the new structure on the existing building and foundations – we used a timber frame structure. Access to the new unit was created by extending the existing lifts and means of escape stairways and by building a link bridge into the existing main hospital street.”
A partnering form of contract was selected to ensure the success of the project, the first of its kind used on a healthcare project in Wales. This created an integrated and collaborative approach between the contractors’ team, the hospital management and staff, with the safety of staff and public of paramount importance throughout the scheme, as well as ensuring existing hospital services were maintained throughout the works.
The Council’s Building Control staff also worked closely with the team throughout the programme, helping to develop practical solutions to the numerous technical challenges that arose - even when it meant site meetings at 8pm in the evening!
Simon Davies, Project Manager for the Gwent Healthcare Trust said: “This was a really successful project with the close collaboration of the team ensuring that all of the problems arising, both on and off the site, were dealt with professionally to ensure that all the end goals were met.”
The new unit provides day care wards, recovery, treatment, and consulting rooms and a Catheterisation Laboratory for use in the treatment of cardiac illnesses.
