Dust and Noise Control Solutions at Ninewells Hospital Dundee keep Staff and Patients Safe during Refurbishment and Building Work

Project Overview

The NHS Tayside Ninewells Hospital is based on the western edge of Dundee, Scotland. The major 862 bed capacity hospital also has both a medical school, and the nursing school of the University of Dundee on site.

The hospital has one of the world’s leading leukemia research units, and is internationally recognised for introducing laparoscopic surgery to the UK. The hospital was due to undergo extension and refurbishment works at multiple areas and wards within the building, whilst the rest of the hospital remained live, including operating theatres.

A specialist dust and noise control solutions was needed to keep Ninewells Hospital staff and patients safe whilst refurbishment and extension building work was carried out.

Challenge

Leading UK contractor Balfour Beatty was tasked with carrying out the works, and the team had to plan carefully how to navigate working inside the live hospital environment. Balfour Beatty’s top priority was protecting its workers, patients and hospital staff from the potential heath hazards that could arise as the project progressed.

Balfour Beatty identified that with the scope of works planned, and the equipment that would be used, that noise and dust could be a serious health hazard and would therefore require control measures.

Stopping airborne hazards from migrating into the live hospital was a high priority, because inhalation of hazardous airborne contaminants could be life threatening, especially within the operating theatres and other sensitive environments within the building.

Solution

A Soundex^® Cutting Enclosure with internal lighting, a cutting deck and a dust extraction vent reduced noise from site activities, including cold cutting steel and timber cutting, by up to 33.6 dB. Soundex^® Acoustic Curtains were also installed in front of windows and around the walls of the work area to reduce the noise further.

RVT’s DUSTEX^® Aire Guardian was installed to completely seal off the work area. It has an exhaust vent which allowed a powerful DUSTEX^® Raptor dust extraction unit to be connected. By working together, these solutions contained the work area and created a negative pressure airlock, which ensured that site activities could take place with the confidence that there would be zero dust migration outside of the work area. An M Class DUSTEX^® B1 Vacuum with floor bar attachment was also used by the site team to collect any settled dust and debris throughout the project.

By hiring RVT’s solutions, Balfour Beatty successfully completed this project safely, and without major disruption to the hospital.