October 2011 Excavation Complete
REVITALISING KEMH
Renovation of the existing hospital building is making good progress. Here’s what’s happening now.
•In September, renovation began on exisiting space to house a 128-slice CT scanner donated by the Hospital Auxiliary Board. The most powerful in Bermuda, it will enable BHB to perform additional angiography procedures and virtual colonoscopy. It uses less radiation and contrast, offers faster scan times and improved overall image quality. The new scanner is planned to go live around the turn of the year.
•Ward renovations are nearing completion. Cooper, Perry and Gordon wards are complete, with the exception of negative pressure systems (for patient isolation) in selected private rooms. Curtis ward renovations are underway and are expected to be complete by year’s end.
•The project to install 164 new windows is now over 90% complete. Soon the entire building will have hurricane rated, energy efficient, tinted windows in place.
•Laboratory renovations and commissioning and testing of new automated equipment are complete. The new lab automation equipment will decrease the risk of errors, increase efficiency, offer a wider range of tests and reduce risk to staff due to a reduction in the physical handling of samples.
New Building on the KEMH Site
Paget Health Services has now virtually completed the bulk excavation of the new building site and has begun to pour the concrete foundations. Some 40,000 cubic yards (or 1,080,000 cubic feet)of rock has been excavated from the site.
Some of that returns in the form of crushed aggregate for filling excavations and pipe trenches.
PHS has been relocating key services such as sewage outflow, pumps and pipe work as well as drilling water abstraction/rejection wells to be used for cooling. The bulk of this work was completed in August and September, with some final connections and commissioning this month. Additional pipe work will be laid at the perimeter of the KEMH campus in due course.
PHS expects that the public will see the new building rise above the level of the hoarding in the New Year. To date, over 1,500 cubic yards of reinforced concrete has been placed in the basement foundations.
New Crane Named
Paget Health Services’ Contractor, BCM McAlpine, held a “Name the Crane Contest” earlier in the year and the winning entry was “Craneiom”. “Craneiom” is 146 feet tall, has a capacity of 12 tons and has a jib (arm) 135 feet long.
The second crane is 155 feet tall, has a capacity of 6 tons and a jib radius of 150 feet. This crane will be named “Curtis” in memory of a BCM McAlpine employee.
The cranes withstand sustained winds of 130 mph. When not in use, the jib is designed to swing with the wind instead of being rigidly set against its force. Both electricity-powered cranes were erected by local teams under the supervision of the UK based certifier and are operated by experienced local drivers.
Watch our progress in our Picture Gallery:
