9 October 2023
Steelwork erection is well underway on Noviniti’s new main entrance at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.
MAW Consulting are acting as both Employers Agent & Quantity Surveyor on this £6.27 million project. The works are to construct two new hospital entrances with a retail offering.
The Principal Contractor is Stepnell Limited. Work commenced on 15th May 2023 on the new Main Entrance, the first of the two entrances.
The new Main Entrance and new North Entrance will be constructed sequentially over a 75-week construction period. Both entrances will be traditionally built, steel framed, two storey structures, on piled foundations with external wall cladding sympathetic to the existing building.
The Main Entrance has a glazed walkway past an M&S Food and Stock Shop at ground floor and a lecture theatre and toilet facilities at first floor. The North Entrance will have a Costa Coffee shop and reception desk at ground floor, and an open first-floor space is to be constructed to “developers shell” standard for future development by the Hospital Trust.
The project involves overcoming several challenges. The small areas of existing hospital remodelling will need to be phased to ensure continued operation of the hospital facilities. The Main Entrance will be constructed next to a significant number of live data cables entering the hospital that need protecting. The existing Main Entrance Reception Area must remain operational and open to the public and staff via alternative protected temporary access route and temporary entrance doors. The North Entrance site sits alongside the hospital’s basement level LINAC facility, which is sensitive to vibration and must remain operational at all times.
