Built In Quality Award For Hospital Contractor

Built In Quality Award For Hospital Contractor

Read Construction Holdings Ltd are celebrating their win in the Best Public/Community Project category in the Cheshire Built In Quality Awards.

Read Construction Holdings Ltd are celebrating their win in the Best Public/Community Project category in the Cheshire Built In Quality Awards. The scheme, a new AMD and Opthalmology Unit for the Countess of Chester Hospital was just one of three projects for which the company has won awards already this year, and was a challenging project.

“The site was a challenging one as the unit occupies one of the enclosed quadrangles within the existing building and the only access is through the busy hospital.” Explains Richard Heaton MD of Read Construction. “We evaluated traditional building techniques which may have been very slightly cheaper but would have resulted in a far longer build time, so the Countess decided to go with the innovative option of pre-fabricating the building and dropping the pieces into position by use of a crane.”

The building of the new unit was approached in an unusual way with the emphasis on ensuring it was ready to start treating patients as quickly as possible. Contractors Read, who have completed over £4.4m of projects over their 4 year partnership with the Countess were instrumental in identifying the best methods to deliver the build. MD Richard Heaton was delighted that the nerve wracking operation to crane in pre-fabricated chunks of the building weighing in excess of 3 tonnes over the walls of the functioning hospital went without a hitch.

The planning and actual craning in of the pieces was a massive logistical operation involving all areas of the hospital and intense health and safety planning as the huge structures were carefully lifted over the walls of the hospital. The operation took place over a weekend to keep disruption to a minimum with work starting at 3am and stopping briefly to allow patients through to theatres. Thankfully the planning paid off as Countess staff, Read’s team and fascinated visitors were treated to the spectacle of the 100 tonne crane at work.

“It is always a great pleasure to have our projects recognised and particularly when they’re significant public buildings.” Said Richard Heaton. “It’s a testament to the professionalism and commitment of all our staff at Read that this is the third such award already in 2010 and I’d like to thank them personally for their continuing efforts.” 

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