Goring Hall Hospital

CASE STUDY – Car Park Construction

Surfacing and civils specialists Spadeoak were appointed by Circle Health Group to construct a new car park at Goring Hall Hospital, Worthing. Following a huge demand for private healthcare, Goring Hall Hospital has outgrown its current car park and to ensure access for their patients investment was provided by the private medical healthcare giant to construct a new 35 space car park within the grounds of the hospital.

As a specialist in the construction of car parks, Spadeoak was instructed by Circle Health group to begin the build of the new 35 space car park at Goring Hall Hospital.

Circle Health Group has seen a significant increase in the number of patients it treats each year. Goring Hall Hospital, is no exception, and at the heart of this project was a need to increase the number of parking spaces available to large numbers of patients choosing to have their treatment delivered at the 52 bed private facility. Historically, the hospital had experienced challenges accommodating both staff, consultant and patient parking. We worked closely with Circle and Goring Hall’s senior management team to understand how we could best utilise the hospital grounds to resolve this issue. The new car park, offers patients exclusive parking, close to the hospital’s main entrance. This improves not only patient access to hospital facilities but also guarantees staff, consultants and visitors the assurance that they can safely and securely leave their vehicles on hospital grounds.

About Goring Hall Hospital

Goring Hall Hospital opened in 1994, serving the community for over 30 years. They have many specialist services, including an orthopaedic centre of excellence, as well as an ophthalmology suite.

Planning Applications

The project was to construct a new car park from a grassland area situated at the entrance to the hospital. Various plans and surveys had to be completed prior to the submission of the planning application, these included bat surveys, badger surveys, tree surveys, SUDS assessments, site investigation plans, utility mapping, ecological impact assessments, tree protection plans, transport surveys and design and access statements.

Although planning was approved, several conditions that must be met, these included fortnightly badger monitoring and reporting, root protection zones enforced to existing trees, introducing wildlife-friendly lighting as part of the scheme, ensuring the project included hard and soft landscaping and a cycle shelter, introducing soakaways designed to withstand all storm events up to and including 1-100 years, installing EV charging pedestals and utilise a gravel grid surfacing system.

The Project

The project began with site clearance, manoeuvring soil from the 1242m² area at a depth of 460mm+ before preparing the area for surfacing, this included utilising a timber path edging, installing 150mm of type 1, 300mm coarse graded aggregate and topped with a Golpla grid system filled with gravel.
Spadeoak civils teams completed the installation of a new drainage system which incorporated soakpits, new manhole covers and piping for water flow.

A 202m² permeable interlocking block paving footpath was installed as well as a new wooden cycle shelter to house 10 bikes.

The car park was complete with electrical installation which included wiring, 3 new Rolec Quantum 22KW EV charging pedestals with twin charging sockets and 37 wildlife-friendly bollard lighting across the hospital grounds.

Asphalt speed humps were also installed to the entrance of the hospital, reducing the speed of vehicles entering the hospital premesis.

Challenges We Faced

We encountered a number of challenges on this project, the biggest being that the hospital was open during our operations. Client care, comfort and accessibility was crucial throughout the duration of the project. This meant continuous consultation had to occurred during the project between Spadeoak and Circle Health Group, communications to patients and stakeholders were issued when required and meticulous planning was put in place to minimise disruption, and segregate the operations from the patient areas as much as possible.

Another challenge faced during this project was the weather, working on a brown site with a natural water flow meant for challenging conditions, extra planning was put in place to ensure this would not impact the programme. It was critical we maintained the highest level of housekeeping and cleanliness of the hospitals entranceway, meeting and exceeding the expectations and perceptions of Goring Hall Hospital for all stakeholders. Extra emphasis on this planning including wheel and boot washing and restricting the working area as much as possible ensuring this was well managed.

Successful Completion

The project was completed ahead of programme and opened back to the hospital after a successfull handover back to a very happy client.

Circle Health Groups’ Senior Project Manager, Neil said “I feel the entire process, from the initial communications, sending out our tender pack, receiving your confirmation to quote, along with meeting your team here on site and in receiving your priced CSA, followed by the various tender questions we had in return, was faultless and prompt.

The team on site undertaking our works have been exceptional. Their desire to help, provide ideas and solutions, work with and immerse themselves within the hospital team, is exceptional and is a true testament to your brand and company.

I would like to personally thank, the Management overseeing this project, Mark, to the Quantity Surveyor Brian, to the Project Manager Lauren and the Site Manager Mike and his team, for what has been a well managed and stress-free project”.