Engineering Focus

Royal Liverpool Hospital situated to the east of the city centre is the largest and busiest hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire, it servers as an adult major trauma centre for the two counties. The current building was constructed in 1978 and replaced 3 other hospitals in the area. The existing 11 story building is typical of 1970s brutalist structures, built largely out of concrete it has an utilitarian and austerer look. Hospitals cannot simply be judged on their appearance however, function has to be the most important aspect. Only after options to refurbish the existing hospital had been assessed and evaluated was the decision taken to construct a completely new building to house the hospital. The existing structure itself was found to be in a relatively good state, however engineering services were found to be well past their 25 year life. After assessing the options for refurbishment it was concluded that refurbishing the existing structure would cost considerably more,

On Wednesday ( 13th May ) I visited Railtex which this year was held at the NEC in Birmingham. The event is an excellent opportunity to see what's new within the rail industry and a chance to catch up with how some of the largest rail infrastructure projects the UK are progressing. On Wednesday there was an opportunity to see how the development of HS2 is progressing. With the passing of the HS2 paving Bill in 2013 ground work for the project can begin as early as next year, with initial preparatory work and detailed surveys taking place. Construction proper is due to begin in 2017, a mere 20 months away. Unfortunately Andrew McNaughton who was originally billed to speak was unable to attend on the day and instead Jon Kerbey, Director of BIM at HS2 took his place. Although no new announcements were made, we did get an opportunity to see the work HS2 Ltd have been doing with BIM (Building information modelling) in order to design and model the line. It was fascinating to see the l