John Sisk & Sons (Sisk) and Galliford Try have both worked on the development of new education and health facilities across the UK and Ireland
John Sisk & Son has built a new nine-storey building at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin. The building will house 98 new beds, including 16 new intensive care unit beds, and a new home for the National Isolation Unit.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, and minister for health Stephen Donnelly, officially opened the building, which cost approximately €103m to build. Sisk adopted a fast-track approach to the construction under the emergency legislation, which led to an estimated €40 saving for the Irish taxpayer.
This building will be known as The Rock Wing and has been designed, built and delivered on budget within just two years under emergency legislation which was enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. lack of bed capacity, particularly intensive care facilities and appropriate single-bedded rooms, was a significant issue for many acute hospitals in the early part of the response to Covid-19.
The new health facilities can help ease hospital crowding
The new facility at Mater will accommodate an additional 5,000 patients per year in world-class health facilities. All rooms are single rooms with ensuite facilities.
“John Sisk & Son is proud to have delivered the Rock Wing building at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin. Thanks to the entire Sisk team and our supply chain partners for delivering such a vital piece of healthcare infrastructure, and congratulations to our client on a fabulous building,” said Paul Brown, CEO of John Sisk & Son.
The 16 new intensive care beds will significantly improve the hospital’s ability to care for the sickest patients in the country. The facilities for the National Isolation Unit will be replaced with contemporary facilities, including 12 isolation respiratory beds and two infectious isolation beds. Each new room is a negative pressure room, meaning they maintain the highest levels of infection prevention and control.
Galliford Try announced plans to redevelop a secondary school
The construction company Galliford Try has announced that their Building North East and Yorkshire business has signed the Group’s first contract under the new Department for Education (DfE) Construction Framework to deliver the new Woodham Academy on behalf of the Eden Learning Trust (ELT).
Galliford Try has been awarded a £39m contract to redevelop the 1,200-pupil secondary school in Newton Aycliffe, which will be partially funded by the DfE’s School Rebuilding Programme.
The business has been awarded a £39m contract that aims to redevelop the 1,200-pupil secondary school in Newton Aycliffe, with funding through the DfE’s School Rebuilding Programme.
The development will utilise technology such as air source heat pumps and PhotoVoltaic (PV) panels, which will help reduce carbon emissions and create a cleaner environment. The proposal also includes new electric vehicle charging facilities and bicycle parking to encourage staff and pupils to travel to school by more sustainable means.
Providing a high-quality and spacious environment for learning
A state-of-the-art new school building and sports facilities will provide the academy with a high-quality and spacious environment for learning. It is hoped that the improved education facilities such as the new sports hall, swimming pool and activity centre, will create new opportunities for the school to provide a range of extracurricular activities. These new sports facilities will also be available to the public.
“We are delighted to be working with the DfE and ELT to produce high-quality education facilities for the local community in Newton Aycliffe, and build upon our fantastic track record in the school building in the North East,” said Cliff Wheatley, managing director of Galliford Try Building North East and Yorkshire.
“It’s great news that we have reached contract close on the first major contract for our team under the DfE’s new framework. We are already working on net zero schools across the country for the DfE and hope that Woodham will become another great exemplar of low carbon construction for our business,” added Claire Jackson, education director for Galliford Try.
