Warbud News

Building 1 of Military Clinical Hospital in Lublin is almost 100 years old. The six-storey building, built in the 1920s in the representative part of the city, was built with contributions made by the society. After World War II, it changed its function from an educational institution to hospital. On October 6, 2022, Warbud undertook to expand the historic building. The main building gained an additional floor which will house comfortable departments of Neurosurgery, Cardiology, Cardiac Rehabilitation and Neurosurgery. For technical installations serving the fourth floor, an additional technical floor was also built.

The progress of work was described by Paweł Guz, site manager at Warbud SA: ‘Construction works are carried out in two stages. The reason is the active operation of the hospital and ensuring safe evacuation of the hospital or access to other buildings in the medical complex, primarily to the emergency rooms. This is why our site amenities and storage yards were placed within the crane's operating range, and the operation of the helipad for the Polish Medical Air Rescue helicopters located on the roof of the neighbouring building was temporarily suspended.

The demolition and construction of the new superstructure space was preceded by the strengthening of the building's existing foundations. ‘We used micropiles inside the rooms which we then recreated. Omissions in the design of the building services, the requirement to maintain the operation of devices, i.e. a Faraday cage in the resonance room, ventilation units serving the operating block or UPS control cabinets are just an example of the difficulties which we have overcome thanks to the experience of the construction staff and a great cooperation with the Investor and Designer,’ says Paweł Guz.

In order to protect the facility against weather conditions, a sliding tent scaffolding was installed on its top. The structure of the roof consisting of two sections (with an overall length of 20 m) allows for independent manoeuvring of the work site depending on crane availability in a given part of the building. ‘As the structure of the building is quite varied and as it is quite old, we fastened the structural walls and propped the existing ceilings intended for demolition. There was not much space, hence the idea for an innovative way of transporting debris from the building to the outside using containers which are emptied by the crane operator without the participation of other employees. By the way, this solution accelerated the demolition work even more,’ added the site manager.

The first stage of the project includes works in the west wing and the central part of the hospital building. The volume of the building to which floors are added is 7861.6 m³, and its total area oscillates around 3270.34 m². The footprint area at this stage is 1,661 m². Today, the old roofing, trusses, floors and masonry walls have been removed almost completely. New wooden roof structure with decking has already been installed in the west wing. In the central part, the roofing works are underway. Time has come now for the installation of partition walls, floors and service lines. A new lift is ready built in a shaft with added levels. ‘We are now assembling the steel structure. Reinforced concrete and masonry works are in progress,’ clarifies Pawel Guz. ‘New roof trusses and decking are being installed. Construction work will be completed in September. When will the new be ready? I think we it will be completed by the end of October.

At that time, the construction team will start fit out works in the space of the future lecture hall, operating rooms and treatment rooms. The existing staircases will be adapted to the current fire regulations. As the western part of the building is in a bad technical state, the existing reinforced concrete columns on all floors will be enclosed with fire-resistant materials and the current installation shafts will gain working platforms, which will allow to run new service lines. There will also be a new electric shaft and the necessary door openings. A new façade will be installed on the new floors of the hospital.