A HUGE contract for a hospital building has been won by a York steel-framed modular buildings manufacturer.

Portakabin subsidiary Yorkon clinched the £10 million deal from building and civil engineering contractor Kier Eastern for the off-site construction of a new hospital building at Colchester General Hospital in Essex.

Designed by Tangram Architects, the £20 million project is the biggest development in the hospital’s recent history and will increase capacity in time for the peak winter period. It will accommodate a new paediatric department on the ground floor and an elective care centre and surgical ward on the upper floor.

Yorkon is manufacturing and fitting out the building at its dedicated 60-acre Portakabin site in Huntington, and will install the 148 modules by crane, each weighing 12 tonnes, in two phases over 14 days.

The project is due for completion in the autumn, in only seven months.

David Johnson, director and general manager of Yorkon, said: “This is one of the most challenging healthcare projects we have undertaken to date.

“The shape of the site demanded a very complex layout; this is a highly constrained and congested site and there is only a short window for construction.”

The Kier Eastern contract comes in the wake of other major healthcare projects built off-site by Yorkon, including a treatment centre in Bristol last year and a £12 million contract to build an acute admissions unit at Watford General Hospital.

Andy Knowles, project manager at Kier Eastern, said, “Taking an off-site approach for the project was the ideal solution, and we estimate it has reduced the programme by around six months.

“We visited the Yorkon production centre in York and one of their completed hospital schemes and were impressed with the quality and approach.”

“The project is a prime example of the advantages of off-site manufacture – providing a fast-track site solution, safer working conditions and a considerable reduction in waste to landfill.”

The new Yorkon pre-installed concrete floor will be used in all 148 modules – the first time this latest technology has been used for a complete building.

The high-performance floor is an innovative solution for high traffic areas and to accommodate sensitive hospital equipment.