Situated on the site of the original Estates Office Building which was demolished in the spring of 2016, the new Non Clinical Support Building at the Royal Victoria Hospital has been praised for its aesthetic appeal and for the high standards to which it has been constructed. This is an exemplar building and one that plays an important role at the Hospital; to rationalise the RVH Estate and provide a footprint for the proposed new Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
The Non Clinical Support Building will also provide a new Receipt and Distribution Centre to support the new Children’s Hospital. It will facilitate an extension of the underground service tunnels at Level 0 for the delivery of goods and waste management, along with new accommodation for Estates Services. Felix O’Hare & Co, the main contractor on the project, delivered a facility built to exacting standards, displaying the same high standards of workmanship that the company employs on every project it undertakes.
Designed by Isherwood & Ellis and AECOM and completed in September 2019, the new NCSB comprises a three-storey building which houses a number of support services for the Hospital, whilst serving as a base for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust Estates team. Floors are zoned to allow for the Receipt & Distribution and Estates Workshops to be located at Level 1 and administration accommodation at Levels 2 and 3. Level 0 includes staff facilities such as offices, lockers and toilets, HV plant rooms, comms room, mechanical plantroom, LV Switch room and workshops. PALS storage areas and service corridors are also located on Level 0. The first level primarily consists of office accommodation including control room, management offices, equipment room, IT hub, toilets and open plan offices and is accessed from Spine road and via a separate Level 1 entrance. Level 2 is accessed via lift or stairs from Level 1 and comprises open plan offices, meeting rooms and staff facilities while Level 3 consists of a rooftop plantroom, accessed from common stair cores and service lifts. The upper floors are accessible by staff only, while south-facing staff dining areas, located at each of the upper levels, afford views over the city.
The upper levels are in a reversed L shaped configuration, with the long axis in a generally northerly direction. There is a large service area to the south of the building for the delivery and removal of hospital linen etc and for refuse skips. This area is accessed from the estate lower service road. Felix O’Hare was delighted to have been involved in such a prestigious project.
“A collaborative approach between all the design teams on this building was the key to its successful delivery. There were a couple of challenges throughout the build phase but nothing that we couldn’t overcome, thanks to our experience in the healthcare sector. We’re extremely proud and privileged to have been involved in this unique project. As a company operating within the construction industry for over 70 years, we pride ourselves on delivering high quality schemes on time and to budget. The amount of repeat business we get is testament to that; our clients know that we’re a company that can be relied upon to deliver the highest quality projects every time.”
Felix O’Hare & Co, 88 Chancellors Road, Newry, BT35 8NG, County Down
T: 028 3026 1134
E: admin@felixohare.co.uk
W: www.felixohare.co.uk
William Coates Ltd was the mechanical contractor on the new Non Clinical Support Building (NCSB) at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. The Newtownabbey company was involved in the fit-out of the heating, plumbing, soils and waste, air-conditioning, ventilation and steam systems. When it came to the soils and waste element of the project, William Coates Ltd installed a Geberit fuse and weld drainage system.
A fully pressurised system with a dry riser installation was also installed, while the heating system delivers constant and variable temperatures. The air conditioning installed by the company has three aspects to it – an air-handling unit (AHU) which is ErP 2018 and HTM compliant, a welfare extraction system and a specialist extraction for fumes and dust.
The NCSB is critical to the running of the whole RVH estate, therefore the work had to be completed to a very high standard. An example of just how critical maintaining services is with healthcare buildings came when William Coates was tasked with providing a temporary plant compound. The steam and oil-fired temporary plant rooms were to serve adjacent buildings to the NCSB during the demolition and groundworks stage. In addition, all welding was completed to Class One standards.
According to William Coates, the new NCSB raises the bar in terms of attention to detail for buildings of this nature. The company has worked on several healthcare projects in the past and with each project it undertakes, attention to detail and high levels of workmanship are essential. This is certainly the case with the new NCSB.
William Coates, 37 Mallusk Road, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim.
T: 0044 (0)28 9034 2560
W: www.williamcoates.com
Operating for over 40 years, WJ Hogg & Co was the go-to company when it came to the design, supply and installation of the rooftop louvre system and louvred doors at the new Non-Clinical Support building at the Royal Victoria Hospital. In total, the company provided the new building with nine louvred doors.
“This project was slightly unusual for us in that it’s one of the bigger louvred projects in Northern Ireland in the past few years. The purpose of the louvre for this building was largely aesthetic; the louvre blade that we used is purpose-designed so that from almost any angle, it’s impossible to see through it. It’s perfect for visual screening and proved the ideal solution for this project,” said Roger Hogg, Managing Director.
T: 028 9077 8700
W: www.wjhogg.co.uk
Tiling specialist, JR Tiling, was tasked with creating an aesthetically pleasing, high quality tiling job at the new non clinical support building at the Royal Victoria Hospital. With years of experience behind it, JR Tiling was the ideal company to take on this prestigious job and complete the project to schedule.
The company is well known for its expertise when it comes to complete bathroom renovations, professional tiling service, high quality plastering and is also an NIC qualified electrician. Wetrooms and moisture resistant MDF cladding also form part of the company’s expert offering. The team at JR Tiling approached the non clinical support building with the same enthusiasm and professionalism that goes into every project the company undertakes.
High levels of workmanship and a dedication to delivering the best quality job underpin JR Tiling’s ethos, values that were carried across the job at the Royal Victorial Hospital.
JR Tiling, 6 Kirkwood Park Lisburn, BT28 3RR
T: 028 92 660101
E: jrtiling777@btinternet.com
