Vinci team wins first phase of £1bn Whipps Cross hospital redevelopment

Vinci has chalked up a design and build contract to build a multi-storey car park as the first phase of the £1bn redevelopment of Whipps Cross Hospital gets underway.

Integrated Health Projects (IHP), a joint venture between Vinci and Sir Robert McAlpine, has been appointed as preferred contractor for the job by Barts Health NHS Trust. The work will be carried out by Vinci Building.

It will see the construction of a 500-space car park building designed by Ryder Architecture, the lead architect behind the wider Whipps Cross Hospital scheme which was submitted for planning in May 2021.

Others working on the project, located in the borough of Waltham Forest in north-east London, include planning consultant Hoare Lea and engineer WSP.

Whipps Cross is one of 45 hospitals on the government’s £20bn New Hospital Programme (NHP) launched by then prime minister Boris Johnson in 2020, and is scheduled to complete by 2030.

A new district general hospital providing a range of patient services including emergency and maternity wards will be built in a single phase on a cleared site within the existing hospital estate, with the remainder of the site being released for housing and other health services.

The multi-storey car park is planned for construction ahead of the main works, due to start in 2025, to clear surface parking from the construction site, according to the NHP.

The six-storey building aims to make access to the new hospital more efficient for staff and visitors and will include chargers for electric vehicles.

IHP was appointed through the £9bn Construction Works and Associated Services ProCure23 Framework, which is operated by the NHS and the Crown Commercial Service.

IHP’s other hospital projects include the £150m Paterson building at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, built by McAlpine, on which the contractor replaced Interserve in 2019.