Crews Complete Wuhan Hospital in 10 Days, Near Finish on Second Coronavirus Facility

China hospital adds 1,000 beds and isolation wards for patients infected with coronavirus.

Inside a modular hospital room unit. Photo courtesy Construction Times and CSCEC

Crews have completed the rapid 10-day construction of the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China. The building was handed over to the medical team of the People’s Liberation Army of China on Feb. 2, which will set up and manage the facility designed to treat victims of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The hospital has already started accepting patients, according to local reports.

Constructed by China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., a subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corp., the building and auxiliary facilities encompass 33,900 sq m, and include space for 1,000 beds.

During peak of construction, more than 1,000 project managers and 5,000 workers worked 24/7 using nearly 1,000 large-scale pieces of equipment and transport vehicles on site to complete the construction at a breakneck pace, reports Construction Times, an independent Chinese construction publication.

Planning on the hospital began Jan. 23 and construction started the next night, when crews began leveling the 50,000-sq-meter site and excavating about 150,000 cu meters of earth. “Progress was measured in hours, not days” by adopting “cutting-edge prefabricated building technology that maximized the use of assembled industrial products and significantly reduced the workload of field operations,” according to a statement by China State Construction Engineering.

Construction Times reports the hospital contains advanced technology and has a higher level of protection and isolation compared to existing infectious disease hospitals. Components include a negative pressure ward, intensive care room, CT room, operating room and laboratory.

A second ultra-fast-track hospital, Leishenshan, was 75% complete as of Feb. 2.

At that point, 70% of the isolation ward has been completed and more than 1,400 modular box rooms have been hoisted.

In addition, 90% of a medical technology building steel structure and column installation have been completed, and 70% of the roof surface installation has been completed. Construction Third Engineering Bureau is also constructing Leishenshan, according to a China State Construction Engineering spokesperson.

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