Rutherford Cancer Centre
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Location: Liverpool
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Sector: Health
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Division: Regional Building, Engineering
We were commissioned for the construction of a new next generation cancer treatment centre, providing chemotherapy, radiotherapy, CT, MRI and proton beam facilities within a state of the art two-storey, steel-framed structure with concrete radiation protection structures to the specialist linear accelerator and proton beam treatment areas.
The project required careful planning and consideration due to the busy city centre site, challenging client programme requirements and shared site with another contractor.
Paramount to the project’s success was the post appointment discussions between our pre construction & delivery teams with the clients design team and involvement of our key supply chain members, sub-contractors and the Client’s named specialist equipment suppliers, in order to develop effective value engineering, approach and programme as to meet our Client and stakeholder aspirations and requirements.
At a glance...
£16.5m
Project value
110 weeks
Duration
Over 5,000m³
of concrete
The programme was broken down into three main work streams:
Initially the Clinic, designed as combination of single, double and three storeys, constructed of a lightweight steel frame, SFS infill, with a mixture of traditional brick work, Kingspan cladding and a Buader tapered insulated roofing system. Incorporating external punched windows and a CW system to the envelope.
Internally the flooring finish was insulated floating screed with sole-plates for the British Gypsum stud partitions.
The complex MEP infrastructure was very dense and delicate planning was critical to house the specialist equipment, such as MRI, CT, Chemo bays, proton therapy equipment. Unity Linac & MR Linac, service and plant rooms where built up with block work with new incoming mains services, water, gas & electric.
The internal fit out was of a high specification incorporating Oak frames, doors, architraves skirting and sills. A large open space atrium area, internal & external automatic sliding and swinging doors, with furniture finishes all in Korian.
The second and third elements were the Proton & Linac vaults which required careful consideration due to technical construction design but also detailed temporary works design and co-ordination. Both bunkers required the excavation of the hard bed sandstone down approx. 8m below Finished Floor and levels brought back up in mass concrete.
The vaults where constructed using reinforced dense concrete poured in situ, with a complex installation of steel embed plates and service ducts, some extending to lengths spanning 50 metres and reinforcement ranging from 30mm – 50mm in diameter. The construction of the vaults incorporated a total of 850 tonnes of reinforcement and over 5,000m³ of concrete, with key constraints being locating complex services and the strict criteria of concrete placement to avoid any cracking greater than 0.3mm.
Social sustainability
Our team were able to integrate a number of initiatives into the project delivery assisted by our Social Value Manager:
- Collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University to integrate the project into the construction student curriculum including presentations from our site management team and site visits for students.
- Working with our supply chain to support local ‘Back to Work’ initiatives within the surrounding community.
- Setting up a collection point and supporting the local community food bank charities.
- Our site team supported the local charity football match between contractors.
Our partners
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Project Manager: Boyden Group
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M&E Engineer: Desco
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Structural Engineer: Fairhurst
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Architect: JDDK Architects