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Prince Charles Hospital

“Shield carried out what was a logistically very difficult Asbestos removal project, in a very professional manner. All aspects of the work were carried out with the highest standards of H&S, quality and efficiency. Due to the nature of the works we encountered many problems but Shield always managed to adapt to help the overall progression of the project. The multi disciplines of Shield were one of the key factors in being awarded the contract and they came into great use. It has been a pleasure to work with Shield and I would highly recommend them”.

Chris Edmonds, Prince Charles Hospital Site Manager

Asbestos Removal

Overview

Shield Asbestos Removal, Cardiff branch were contracted under Interserve, to undertake asbestos removal and remediation works at Prince Charles Hospital in South Wales. These removal works were necessary to facilitate major planned refurbishment and upgrading works within the hospital.

Prince Charles Hospital is a district general hospital in Gurnos, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, that is managed by the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board. Open 24 hours, the hospital hosts a range of services including radiology, day surgery, oncology, physiotherapy and many more, as well as being a major acute and major A&E centre for the region.

The hospital remained fully operational throughout the duration of the contracted works, which brought its own set of challenges. As well as having to work around other on-site trades and the close proximity of members of the public throughout the works, the logistical location of works was limited to both ground and upper floors of the hospital. This affected the transiting of operatives, movement of waste from work areas and other such tasks which had to be meticulously and strategically planned to minimise disruption to all parties. Shift patterns were also modified at strategic phases and points of the works, to minimise disruption to the surrounding areas and to hospital staff and patients.

The contracted works involved fully stripping back to the original concrete ‘shell’ of the internal areas of work, which were undertaken under both semi and fully controlled conditions. All works were carried out in accordance with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR2012), the Licenced Contractors Guide HSG247, and as a rolling phased programme of works. This programme worked in conjunction with all other trade disciplines on the project. As the first contractors on site, the timely delivery of our works were program critical to all other on-site follow on trades.

Numerous pre-let and programming meetings were held with all parties over a 12 month period to ensure the smooth running of the project. Once works commenced, daily and weekly meetings were held to continue to ensure the project ran efficiently. To ensure the safety of everyone on site, all operatives were required to undertake Interserve online company inductions prior to gaining site access, ensuring all operatives had up-to-date training for both asbestos related and construction industry standards. As operatives also had to work around other project specific hazards such as Hot Works, Manual Handling, Chemical and Medical gasses, working at height and the use of demolition machinery, maintaining the safety standards throughout the project was of utmost importance.

Site management and safety included measures such as segregating and securing the Shield compound with herres fencing; strategically placing both industry standard and Shield branded signage around the works areas and placing site logistic plans such as access, egress, waste and transit routes around the site. All visitors and workers were also required to sign in and out at all times.

As with many projects of this complexity, there were several factors that could not have been anticipated at tender of planning stages. A number of contract variations developed and by working collaboratively with Interserve, were managed and delivered pro-actively.

Other divisions within Shield Services group were also involved at various stages during this project; Shield Mechanical & Electrical were contracted to carry out isolation works prior to the commencement of site works; Shield Fire & Security designed and installed a wireless integrated fire control system, which was directly linked to the trusts own system and Shield Demolition undertook demolition works to external perimeter buildings. All divisions were also on hand to offer support if required for the duration of the project.

The project ran from December 2018 through to April 2020, generating a total of £1.9m in revenue.

Prince Charles Hospital PDF.
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