£150m children’s hospital delayed as construction firms enter administration
The completion of a £150 million children’s hospital will be delayed for months after construction firms entered administration and provisional liquidation.
The new Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh was due to open in autumn 2017, but NHS Lothian now expects this will be pushed back to spring 2018.
The delay comes after financial problems hit two construction firms on the project.
Dunne Group entered administration, followed by JB Brickwork going into provisional liquidation.
Both firms have temporarily stopped work at the site and the health board said further delays have been caused by ” unfavourable winter weather and unavoidable technical construction problems”.
The consortium building the hospital, IHS Lothian, has increased the workforce and working hours in order to offset delays and has also altered construction methods.
NHS Lothian acting chief executive Jim Crombie said: “We will continue to work closely with IHS Lothian Ltd to ensure that our state-of-the-art new hospital is delivered as soon as possible.
“Projects of this scale and of this nature are very rarely straightforward and bring with them many complex and sometimes unavoidable challenges. It is important to note that these alterations to the construction timetable will not result in any additional costs to NHS Lothian.
“Whilst this change is frustrating for our patients and staff, we must not forget that construction of this impressive new building is continuing and that much work has already been achieved.
“In addition, the project has already created a host of new entrant jobs for local people, including apprentices and graduate opportunities.”
Work continues onsite while NHS Lothian awaits a revised building schedule.
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