Environmental Monitoring Solutions Installed at Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH) During the Construction of a new Cancer Centre

Project Overview

Construction work needed to take place at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH) Combe Park site to create a new Dyson Cancer Centre. The new centre would provide a cancer services hub for half a million people in the South West. The aim was to bring the majority of the RUH's cancer services, including the research teams, under one roof.

Challenge

The hospital had a large phase of demolition works that needed to take place to make way for the new cancer centre, and it was important to ensure that hazards such as dust and vibration were closely controlled while demolition and construction works took place, to protect workers, and to ensure other areas of the hospital could continue to operate as normal without people being at risk.

Solution

The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust reached out to RVT Group directly to hire five Monitex Area Dust Monitors and one Monitex Vibration Monitor. This enabled the project team to closely monitor dust and vibration pollution throughout every stage of construction, but especially during the very dusty and hazardous demolition works.

RVT's Area Dust Monitors provided real-time measurements of airborne dust and particle emissions, and data could be reviewed via a cloud-based platform. This helped to ensure that the works stayed below the Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) for dust exposure, and it also provided peace of mind that dust would not migrate into sensitive live areas of the hospital.

The Vibration Monitor helped to ensure compliance with the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 and ensured that the existing hospital building was not at risk of being damaged. Automatic text and SMS real-time alerts could be set up, allowing the hospital to monitor vibration levels closely. The Monitors were installed at strategic points around the perimeter of the site to ensure that dust and vibration was maintained to a level where it did not exceed the agreed threshold.