UHL 16 Bed, Co. Limerick

In April 2024, HBM were appointed by the HSE Western Division to take the lead on delivering a 16 bed emergency accommodation unit to the University Hospital Limerick. The brief called for a fast delivery of 16 acute care bedrooms with supporting clinical accommodation at ground floor level, shell and core for future medical uses at first floor level and the plant room at second level.

The project represented a huge challenge from the outset due to its complexity, extremely short programme and limited budget. Because of a very tight delivery timeframe, the tender stage has been skipped, which additionally introduced a high level of risk.

To allow for the best connectivity of the new ward with the existing hospital building, the most appropriate operational location for the future build had been identified within an existing enclosed courtyard situated along the main hospital street and between the Emergency and Paediatric Department of the main hospital building. Building in this area required a high consideration of construction logistics, careful risk management, as well as specific construction methods that would allow construction of a new 2 storey structure within an area with no physical access to it.

Light Gauge Steel prefabricated system had been chosen due to its relatively light nature, allowing for lifting the prefabricated panels with a crane over the existing live hospital buildings and slotting them in place. As with any other prefab systems, the design needed to be very quickly coordinated across all disciplines to enable fast delivery and assembly on site.

The programme for phase 1 of the project, which involved the construction of the 2-storey ward (16 no bedrooms at Ground Floor and Shell and Core at First Floor) with the plant room situated on the roof, allowed for 8 months.

Phase 2 followed very quickly with the fit out of the first-floor level to deliver a further 16 bedrooms within a further 6 months. Before the end of the project, the HSE decided to deliver yet an extra 16 bedrooms at level 4 (3rd floor), which is currently ongoing, following an extensive enabling works phase required to reinforce the existing structure that initially was designed as a 2 storey building.