TECHNICAL
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Technical
BAM’S COVID CHALLENGE ON INTENSIVE CARE BUILD BUILDING A NEW INTENSIVE CARE UNIT AT SOUTHAMPTON GENERAL HOSPITAL, BAM HAD TO RE-ROUTE EXPLOSIVE ‘QUENCH PIPES’, AVOID INTERFERENCE WITH SENSITIVE MRI IMAGING EQUIPMENT, AND EVEN ALTER EMERGENCY HELICOPTER FLIGHT PATHS. AND THEN THE CORONAVIRUS ARRIVED... STEPHEN COUSINS REPORTS
BAM was just a couple of months into construction of a new intensive care unit for Southampton General Hospital when covid hit the UK and all hope of delivering a straightforward job evaporated. The day after prime minister Boris Johnson delivered his infamous “Stay at home” speech at the end of March, the
extension and refurbishment project lost around 80% of its workforce. “It was horrific, our supply chain just crumbled,” says Matt Crookes, project manager at the main contractor. “I spent the next week continuously on the phone trying to encourage people back, explaining the stringent new safety measures we had put in place.”
The block is squeezed in tightly between the curved (in plan) Cardiac North Wing extension and a main entrance building
Workers soon returned – the project was classified as an ‘essential NHS project’ and letters were issued by the trust to subcontractors and supply chain – but the site’s proximity to the main hospital building and connection to the existing ICU, where NHS staff struggled with the dramatic influx of patients, have made the
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