Linac 2 Replacement - Health
Client: MidCentral Health Limited
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The scope of works for this project was stages.
Firstly, three existing rooms in the CT Scanner were demolished and became a new waiting room. This was to be handed over first so patients had an area away from the new build. Mainzeal could only work in these rooms when the hospital was not scanning or treating cancer patients.
Project Data:
Location:
Palmerston North
Client:
MidCentral Health Limited
The second stage was construction of the new building and strengthening of the bunker, tying into the existing operating building. Excavation commenced for the lift pit and basement followed by the pouring of foundations and slabs which included drilling 7900mm dia piles on the exterior to hold the weight of the new panels. Then precast panels were lifted to the basement and lift shaft.
Mainzeal then commenced night work to get the bunker bulked up to cope with the radiation of the new linear accelerator machine arriving from the United States. After constantly finding unmarked underground service tunnels, the piling was completed at an average of 3 per night.
The exterior walls of the existing building had to be thickened as part of the radiation proofing and this was done by sitting new 150mm thick panels 400mm off the existing panels, tying them in and pouring the infill in situ. Two triangular-shaped infills at 1500 wide x 3900 long x 3000 high were constructed to hold 182 tonnes of structural slatted steel needed to reflect and absorb neutrons protecting each floor from their respective machines, as Palmerston North Hospital is the only place in the world to have one Linear Accelerator machine on top of another.