Balfour Beatty has won a deal to undertake the interim construction contract on the Midland Met hospital in Smethwick, which has stalled following the collapse of Carillion.
Balfour will undertake work to weatherproof the building and develop the design, ahead of appointment of a final construction contract, for which procurement begins in November.
Carillion signed a deal in 2015 to build the £350m hospital, which was originally due to open this month.
Construction problems pushed the hospital’s completion back to spring 2019 but stalled when the building was only two-thirds complete after Carillion entered liquidation in January.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust ended the existing PFI contract with Carillion’s joint venture earlier this year and took back control of the site in July.
The Trust has now opted for a public funding model and completion is expected in 2022.
Now documents released by the Trust ahead of a board meeting today reveal that in addition to Balfour’s appointment, it has taken on five “key” external leadership staff who previously worked for Carillion to continue to lead delivery of the hospital’s construction.
Meanwhile, the Trust is holding weekly meetings to try and stave off the risk of the hospital being further delayed if a contractor cannot be found in 2019 because of insufficient market availability.
