Off-site construction specialist awarded its largest ever building project

The £17.9m contract has been award to Yorkon and is for a new Women & Children’s Centre at North Middlesex University Hospital, working to main contractor Kier.

The scheme will be constructed using the new Yorkon off-site building system and will comprise 152 steel-framed modules up to 18m long and in many different sizes and configurations to suit the building’s design and site.  The units will be craned into position with doors, windows, first fix electrics and plumbing, and a concrete floor all pre-installed.

The project, which was procured under the ProCure21+ framework, is being built off site at the Yorkon production centre in York. The project managers expect this approach to reduce disruption to patient care and to ensure the build programme is finished before the busy winter period.

The building will provide a larger consultant-led delivery unit with additional high dependency beds, two new obstetrics theatres, a neonatal unit, triage centre, women’s outpatient department, a midwife-led birthing unit with four birthing pool rooms, a postnatal ward with discharge lounge, and a transitional care unit to support neonatal care.   A roof-top plant room will be located on the second floor.

The biggest advantage of off-site construction on this project is speed. It will reduce the delivery time by around three months enabling the new facilities to be up and running ahead of the busy winter period. It will also bring quality benefits because it allows much of the construction, such as the concrete flooring, to take place off site in a controlled factory environment that is not affected by poor weather conditions.  The project is due for completion later this year.