Building Briefs – April 14th

• AECOM providing multi-disciplinary support for new NHS Louisa Jordan hospital

The conversion of the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) will initially provide NHS Scotland with 300 beds as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

AECOM’s work includes project management, cost management, electrical engineering and IT design, civil and structural engineering, mechanical design review, a supervisor team of building surveyors, and health and safety advice. 

The firm, which currently has around 40 healthcare experts supporting delivery of the project, is working as part of the wider project team which is on site 24/7 to ensure rapid delivery of the facility.

AECOM UK&I healthcare and science sector leader, Richard Mann, said: “Hospitals are complex structures which require bespoke construction and engineering so that NHS staff can care for patients with peace of mind that their workplace is fit for purpose. AECOM is extremely proud to be working alongside our peers and construction partners in Scotland’s built environment sector to support the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and its frontline staff in their critical response to this crisis.”

• Shedman reaches out to vulnerable people with offer of 100 free small Shopping Sheds

Garden sheds manufacturer and distributor Shedman is reaching out to vulnerable individuals and families throughout west central Scotland with an offer to deliver 100 small Shopping Sheds entirely free of charge.

The Shopping Sheds offer a safe, dry and secure way to deliver shopping to friends and family, protecting essential items from the elements and easy to collect. They will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

The Shopping Sheds can be situated at a front door or in a garden area. When lockdown measures are lifted, they can be adapted for further use as, for example, a planter, a parcel drop-box or a children’s outdoor toy box.

Shedman’s managing director, William Roddie, said: “In these unprecedented times, delivering food and essential supplies to loved ones is difficult. To solve this problem the creative minds at Trend Differently, together with our master builders here at Shedman, have designed and built 100 small Shopping Sheds to help the most vulnerable in our local communities.” 

Mr Roddie, who is also a director of his Glasgow-based family-owned business, Spectrum Properties, added: “As the effects of Coronavirus worsen by the day, it is clear we are all in this together. This offer is simply meant to give a helping hand to vulnerable people who may be struggling to get by”.

• Care home manager praises SOS specialists for donating ‘lifesaving equipment’

Susan Robson of Dryfemount Care Home

A care home is being helped to keep its residents and staff safe in the fight against coronavirus thanks to a generous donation of sanitiser and visors from rapid response specialists. 

Dryfemount Care Home in Lockerbie, which has 29 residents and 45 staff, was struggling to get hold of the sanitiser it needed to keep residents and staff safe.

But local company ECO, which has bases in Annan and Cumbria, came to the rescue and donated and delivered five-litres of its specialist anti-virus sanitiser and eight reusable visors.

ECO has set up a full COVID-19 rapid response solutions operation.

It has already answered the call to help a factory, which has a government order for manufacturing vital material for visors for the NHS, to continue production 24/7 by supplying anti-virus sanitiser and an on-call emergency sanitising team. 

ECO’s experience and equipment means it can even set up field hospitals and other emergency structures with its rapid response building team, and has large volumes of medically-approved beds to help cater for an upsurge in COVID-19 patients.

The company is also rolling out rapid response testing solutions which include rapidly deployable virus containment and testing pods.