Meander Medisch Centrum and Heijmans have entered into an agreement to jointly prepare the construction of a new hospital on the Maatweg in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. It is a step towards final contract award. Together with the architect, Atelier Pro, Heijmans and Meander will start work on optimizing the currently available design. During the coming months the parties will investigate how the building can be constructed and at what cost.
The new hospital will have a targeted capacity of 600 beds for an area of 300,000 residents. The hospital is to replace the current Elisabeth and Lichtenberg locations in Amersfoort. For this contract, Heijmans has bundled its building and installation activities (Burgers Ergon). 'This combination of construction and installation engineering is a perfect fit in terms of our vision. We also want to be creative and innovative,' says Jan Kleijne, Chairman of Meander Medisch Centrum's Executive Board. 'The Meander design team and the selected consortium will set up a project organization structure focused on achieving integral collaboration. The assignment for the first stage of construction preparation is limited to optimizing and elaborating the design. The objective here is to create a design that can be implemented within available budget constraints. We are reviewing the entire design one more time on the basis of Heijmans' construction-related knowledge. We want to maximize certainty concerning the design's feasibility, so that we will be able to construct the building within the available budget.'
This joint approach to contracting for a large-scale and complex project of this type is unique. In any case, Meander is at the forefront in terms of the elaboration of its property development vision and the design of this new hospital. Meander and Atelier Pro are making use of a three-dimensional building information model. This generates huge data files, which can be used by the architect as well as the builder. The building information model allows all available information about the building to be retrieved, ranging from floor plans and cross sections to surfaces, quantities and dimensions. Changes can be easily made and the civil engineering implications are immediately discernable. This results in time gains and avoids costs of failure. There is no longer any need for the architect or the contractor to create a set of specifications.
Heijmans and Meander are expecting to sign the definitive construction contract in the spring of 2009. According to current plans the hospital will become operational in 2012.
Source: Heijmans
