1960s-built West Yorkshire complex one of worst affected by RAAC crisis
Gleeds has been appointed project manager on a £1.5bn scheme to rebuild a hospital in West Yorkshire.
The job at Airedale General Hospital in Keighley is part of the government’s New Hospital Programme and will be in the second wave of the initiative which was given a new timetable earlier this year by health secretary Wes Streeting,
The hospital was built in the late 1960s and opened by the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, in 1970.
But the complex is crumbling with more than 80% of it having been built using Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), which hit the headlines 18 months ago when dozens of schools made from the lightweight form of concrete were told to close because of collapse worries.
Scottish contractor Robertson has been carrying out remediation work at the hospital which has involved strengthening or replacing 50,000 RAAC wall, floor and ceiling panels as well as a further 5,000 load bearing panels, making it one of the worst RAAC-affected hospitals in the country.
No other consultants have been publicly named on the Airedale rebuild but given the job is in the second wave of schemes, construction is expected to start by 2030 with bosses at the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust hoping work can start in 2028 with a finish pencilled in for 2030.
In a letter to local NHS leaders last week, health minister Karin Smyth said money for the first stage of the rebuild, such as infrastructure work, had now been approved.
Sir Robert McAlpine has been carrying out upgrade work at the hospital since 2016 with its work including extending the hospital’s emergency department, building a new car park and constructing new operating theatres to boost capacity.
The hospital serves 220,000 people living in the Bradford and Craven districts.
One of the non-executive directors at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust is former NG Bailey boss Mark Andrews who later went on to work at Balfour Beatty and Laing O’Rourke.
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