One of Ireland’s leading building companies, Clancy is delighted to be a finalist in the 2023 Irish Construction Excellence Awards for its successful delivery of a 12-bed isolation rooms extension to the Intensive Critical Care Unit (ICCU) at Tallaght University Hospital.
No stranger to winning prestigious accolades, Clancy’s have been shortlisted in the ‘Healthcare Project’ category. The Irish Construction Excellence Awards (ICE Awards) are the original and premier recognition of performance excellence for the contracting sector in Ireland, and provide an opportunity for the industry to showcase and reward best practice across the full range of construction disciplines and project categories.
Clancy Construction demonstrated all of their healthcare building expertise with the completion of the Tallaght University Hospital project which entailed a €15 million single-storey first floor extension to the existing ICCU to create a new 12-bed isolation room extension, associated ancillary space and open-air screened plant area on the new roof. The single-storey extension is approximately 2,055m2 and was constructed above the existing Adult and Children’s Outpatients’ Department, and connected to the existing ICCU, while all these departments remained fully operational through the build process.
The project included working with the existing hospital for service connections and reconfigurations and was undertaken in collaboration with Garlands Consulting Engineers & acting PSDP role, IN2 Engineering and Scott Tallon Walker Architects, FCC fire consultants and IPT3 assigned certifiers. It was completed between June 2021 and July 2022.
“We are very pleased that all our planning and organising led to a very favorable outcome for the client and end users, and Clancy’s are very privileged to have been given the opportunity to present our work to the ICE judges,” Clancy Associate Director Ian Smillie quoted.
“The construction team who built the new ICCU was led by our Project Manager David Roche. Our Site Managers Marius Gelzinis, Bernard Cunniffe and Conor Hill worked hand-in-hand to complete it to the highest standard. Francis O’Herlihy took the lead in the Services Coordination role. It was a real team effort between everyone, including our subcontractors and design teams.”
The ICCU project was negotiated under the Covid-19 emergency legislation and carried out under a Government Works contract. Clancy Construction’s team had previously delivered the €18 million Renal Dialysis vertical extension for Tallaght University Hospital. Following a Covid-19 outbreak there, the Hospital was keen to increase its ICCU bed capacity and turned to Clancy once again, knowing that it would deliver the project to the required quality, programme, safety and budget without causing any disruption to existing services.
The Hospital, including the ICCU and Outpatients’ Departments, remained operational throughout the works. As a result, works connections to existing areas were completed at night and outside of normal working hours.
As a vertical extension above a live Outpatients’ Department, the project required building a structural steel frame onto the roof of the existing outpatients building to form the structural frame for the first floor and roof plant room structure. Clancy developed an innovative waterproofing procedure involving bespoke ‘Cowles’ welded to the steel columns working hand in hand with the existing roof weathering system to keep the existing ground floor dry while the structural extensions were being made. This strategy controlled any water ingress to the existing building while the vertical extension works continued above for eight months, until the new roof was completed and new rain water system confirmed as fully operational. At this point, the existing roof weathering and insulation was removed.
The project provided many challenges apart from temporary weathering the existing building through the build process. All Mechanical and Electrical systems were tied back into live hospital systems, located in different locations throughout the existing hospital. 2.9km of power cables were pulled through the live hospital to ensure the new ICCU beds were supplied accordingly. A full year was spent coordinating and installing drainage systems down through the existing OPD while ensuring all the adult and pediatric departments remained live through the process. BMS, Fire alarm, CCTV, Data, medical gases, pneumatic tube and LPHW services were all routed back through the live environment. 3rd Party validation was carried out for 13 No AHU on the roof; 10 No lead lined walls in the isolation rooms; air tightness for each of the 12 No isolation rooms and the overall building; medical gas install.
Founded in 1947 by John Clancy, Clancy is an indigenous, award-winning Irish company that enjoys three generations of continual development. Today, the company is fronted by John O’Shaughnessy and employs 150 people. The senior management team is made up of five main board directors and five associate directors.
Clancy has grown into a strong and innovative organisation with vast experience in all sectors of the Irish construction industry, including healthcare, residential, conservation restoration, commercial retail and fit-out, education, nursing home and primary care, religious conservation, hospitality, and sports and leisure. The company is headquartered in Drangan, Thurles, Co. Tipperary and has two other offices in Dublin and Limerick. Its client-base is split evenly between the public and private sectors.
Clancy’s motto is ‘Built on Partnership’. This partnership approach reinforces collaboration and teamwork, and lends itself to an air of inclusivity between all parties involved in the project. In order to carry out a project with the high risk nature of building in a live hospital environment, Clancy’s relied on partnership and collaboration with the client and their front line team which ensured the success of this very complicated project.
“Working in parallel with the client’s team, the Clancy team I work with are focused and results-driven,” explains Ian, who has been with Clancy for over 10 years and is currently working on the refurbishment of the Garda Headquarters Block J and the Mater Private Hospital (both in Dublin).
“Their success comes from always considering the clients’ requirements first, so much so that when planning and organizing, the clients’ needs are always top of the agenda. This is especially important when operating in the clinical environment. My main functions on the Tallaght University Hospital project as Senior Contracts Manager were as client liaison and construction team lead.”
Clancy has raised its profile within the industry to compete at the highest level. This has resulted in increases in turnover which the company expects will continue in the years ahead. Clancy’s continual investment in technology ensures that the client benefits from the efficiencies gained by it, and that they have access to important innovations such as BIM and Offsite Construction.
Health & Safety is paramount, especially in this post-Covid era. Clancy operates safety systems on site to the highest standards. It has been a Safe T Grade-A certified company for many years. These excellent safety standards give clients the peace of mind that Clancy operates its safety management system to one of the highest standards that can be achieved in the industry.
Clancy
Ballylusky,
Drangan,
Thurles,
Co. Tipperary.
Telephone: 052 91 52166
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.clancy.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, August 2023, Vol 9 No 8
