Laing O’Rourke is using modern methods of construction (MMC) to build a technically complex advanced cancer treatment centre in Brighton for University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust.
Costing nearly £200m, according to the contractor, the new and expanded Sussex Cancer Centre will be a five-storey building that brings advanced cancer treatments, technology and clinical practice together under one roof.
Part of NHS England’s New Hospital Programme, it will have extra specialist inpatient beds, more spaces for chemotherapy and more linear accelerators for radiotherapy.
Located next to the Louisa Martindale Building, which Laing O’Rourke completed in 2023, the new cancer centre is going up on a tight site bounded by operational hospitals and a busy main road with high public footfall.
‘Think about Lego’
Laing O’Rourke is getting around this by manufacturing components at its factory in Nottingham for fast assembly on site, and using its DataScope delivery management system to coordinate the complex logistics.
“That means we take the noisy, disruptive work out of Brighton and into a controlled environment,” design manager Karen Greaves Erickson said in a video about the project.
“Think about Lego,” senior project manager Alex Lake said in the video. “You don’t cut the bricks on the living room floor, you get them pre-made to the right shape and delivered to your house. You then fit them together. That’s basically what we’re doing here.”
Will it fit?
Laing O’Rourke said there were concerns the new cancer centre would interfere with existing buildings’ structural stability and operations, so it used the digital model and laser scanning of the existing facilities to ensure spatial fit.
The contractor had to demolish and clear the old cancer centre, which it said it did “without incident or disruption, ensuring minimal noise, dust and vibration”.
Now, pre-manufactured components are being delivered to site on a just-in-time basis to match the erection sequence. Vehicle and pedestrian movements follow strictly segregated routes.
Staff advised on layout
The cancer centre sits inside Laing O’Rourke’s Brighton 3Ts framework, under which it is delivering 80 work packages at the live Royal Sussex County Hospital in three stages.
The packages will upgrade facilities and increase capacity in more than 40 wards.
Stage 2 includes the new cancer centre. Cancer centre staff advised Laing O’Rourke on the design and layout to improve staff and patient experiences.
There will be accessible roof gardens providing a private rehabilitation area for patients.
