Laing O’Rourke is joining the £300m project under a pre-construction services agreement, in expectation of becoming the main contractor when construction work begins next year.
The seven-storey 26,300 sqm facility, to be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, is set to be the first hospital delivered in the east of England as part of the government’s new hospital programme.
It has been designed by architect NBBJ with Aecom as engineer. Aecom will also support with construction project and cost management.
A full planning application was submitted to Cambridge City Council in January and a decision is expected later this year. Construction works for the new hospital are due to start in 2024. The new hospital is expected to open in 2027.
The appointment of Laing O’Rourke comes as NHS England, the Department of Health & Social Care and the Treasury have approved the outline business case for the project.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has also appointed Matt Allen as its new hospital construction director to manage the build. He previously led the construction of the University of Cambridge £300m Ray Dolby Centre/ Cavendish III physics laboratory.
The specialist cancer research hospital is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Cambridge and its Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre (CRUK CC). It will combine NHS clinical space with three new research institutes.
Laing O’Rourke has built 18 hospital projects since 2010, including the Louisa Martindale Building in Brighton, the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital (stepping in after Carillion collapsed), the Grange University Hospital in Wales, the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool and the Cancer Centre at Guy’s & St Thomas in London.
John Spicer, project director for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, said: “Working alongside colleagues at Laing O’Rourke will help bring innovation and unique expertise in modern methods of construction to the project, which will play an important role with our plans to build the east of England’s new cancer research hospital.”
Rory Pollock, healthcare sector leader from Laing O’Rourke, said: “We’ve worked collaboratively with the design team NBBJ and Aecom on a number of healthcare projects over the past decade and will bring industry leading expertise to support the next stage of their design development journey. We will maximise the use of modern methods of construction to bring real benefits in terms of programme and cost certainty. We also understand that a hospital’s identity is paramount and will support the development of the non-clinical, public realm spaces to maximise the patient and staff experiences.”
Laing O’Rourke was selected following a competitive process using Crown Commercial Service’s Construction Works and Associated Services 2 (CWAS2) framework, a collaboration with NHS England that includes ProCure 23 (P23).
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