Balfour Beatty’s Midland Metropolitan University Hospital has been given the green light to open on 6 October, six years behind its original completion target.
The contractor took over the project in 2019 after Carillion’s collapse the previous year, which was already behind schedule.
The nine-floor state-of-the-art megastructure has a gross internal floor area of 85,924 sq m and can hold around 700 beds.
Once open, it will serve more than half a million people with facilities for acute and emergency care (the largest acute hospital in the region) as well as paediatric, maternity and inpatient adult care.
The project won the Digital Construction Project of the Year at this year’s Digital Construction Awards for its use of innovative digital tools and platforms in a complex environment.
The hospital will also be home to a new £18m learning campus set to open in 2025 and funded mainly by the government’s Towns Fund.
Lindsay McGibbon, managing director of Balfour Beatty’s regional buildings business, said: “This is a momentous moment for everyone at Balfour Beatty and the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.
“Achieving this milestone was only made possible thanks to years of hard work and dedication from our people, who deserve a special mention for safely and successfully delivering this long-awaited, transformative hospital, which will deliver significant benefits for the local community for years to come.”
