The history of the construction process of the new Girona Clinic.
On 12 April 2022, the official inauguration ceremony for the new Clínica Girona facilities took place. Among those present were Dr. Pere Solà, President of the Clínica Girona Board of Directors, the Catalan Government’s Ministers for Health, Research and Universities, Dr. Josep Maria Argimon and Ms. Gemma Geis, and the Mayor of Girona, Ms. Marta Madrenas, along with other authorities.
The new Clinic became operational on April 18^{th}, Easter Monday, when the transfer of admitted patients took place.
The new building represents an investment of €65 million. It is innovatively healthy and has been constructed with maximum sustainability criteria. Equipped with the latest generation technology and prepared for future pandemics, the new Clinic brings the medicine of the future closer to Girona.
On this page, you can follow the entire construction process of the new health centre.
January 2022 Opening postponed due to lack of aluminium
The new Girona Clinic is almost ready, but its opening has had to be postponed due to aluminium supply problems for the construction company, and at present there is no fixed date for the move. The aluminium pieces needed to finish the enclosure of the lower part of the facade are still to arrive. The reason is the global supply crisis that is particularly affecting the construction sector. Inside, work continues to finish fitting out all the installations and equipment.
End of 2021. The final stretch
If the construction work on the new Clínica Girona continues at the planned pace, the move is expected to take place at the beginning of December. Specifically, the Puríssima location will be used, taking advantage of the quieter period during the holidays. The planned schedule is: In October, coinciding with the finalisation of the work, cleaning and the installation of all furniture will take place; in November, Clínica staff will begin to test all installations and prepare equipment and services, and the move will happen at the beginning of December. If all goes well, on Thursday, December 9th, the new Clínica Girona will be fully operational and up and running.
September 2021
In May 2021, work is being done to finish the facade with the last covering elements and the curtain wall of the main facade will soon begin to be installed. Inside the building, finishing works are being carried out, mechanical roof installations with large distribution collectors, air conditioning installations with large machines on the roof, and electrical installations. On the exterior of the building, in parallel, work is being done on the landscaping with many areas already having the final pavement laid and outdoor parking areas demarcated. A crane has also been removed so that the building can be finished in its central section.
May 2021
In September 2021, the ventilated facade that will cover the new Girona Clinic is practically finished, and interior conditioning works are also being completed, with all mechanical and electrical installations being finalised and finishes being completed. Some of the large medical equipment that needs to be brought into the building before the facade is definitively closed has also been moved in.
March 2021
In March 2021, construction work continued on the new Clínica Girona with interior installations, facade cladding, and urbanisation of the area. With the interior layouts now well-defined, work is underway on the electricity, sanitation, lift, and escalator systems, as well as generator sets, etc. Simultaneously, urbanisation of the area is proceeding, with the pavements of the streets bordering the perimeter of the new Clínica Girona.
January 2021
In January 2021, construction work on the new Clínica Girona continued at full steam. Once the building's structure was finished, work has been underway for several months on the interior and the facade cladding, a technological ventilated facade with curtain walls, which is being installed by the company Ciprés Group, specialising in this type of unique facades. Inside, interior layouts on the floors have already been completed and work is underway on electrical installations, sanitation, escalators, generator sets, etc. The roofs are already waterproofed. Regarding the urbanisation, underground installations have been completed and part of the Barcelona street pavement is starting to be laid.
October 2020
In October 2020, the state of the works already shows the’Skyline From the new Girona Clinic, at the southern entrance to the city. The entire structure of the building is now finished. The different floors are all but paved. This October, work is also underway on the interior of the facade, where the windows are beginning to be visible. The roofs are in the pre-waterproofing stage. On the floors, the different rooms are being laid out, and the climate control, electrical, sanitation, drinking water, and other installations are being fitted. At the same time, on the exterior of the building, the urbanization installations are being completed, and very soon the street boxes within the plot, which are part of the PAU-116 project, will begin to be constructed. The new Clinic is already shaping the new profile of Girona's southern entrance.
August 2020
At the end of August 2020, the concrete structure of the new Girona Clinic building is practically complete, with only a few minor details remaining. The outline of the future hospital centre already presides over the southern entrance to the city. Three floors have been paved, the first, second, and third, and work will soon begin on the interior divisions, as well as the installation of various systems. In the basement floors, the rough divisions are almost finished, and electrical installations, sprinklers, ventilation ducts, etc., are being carried out.
June 2020
The works for the new Girona Clinic are facing the fourth floor in June 2020. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic which forced a two-week halt to the works, the progress is good. In January, workers were finishing erecting the structure and pillars of the ground floor, crowning this floor with anti-vibration springs on which the upper floors will be supported. Currently, the fourth floor is being erected, from where the Girona Cathedral is already beginning to be visible.
In June 2020, on floors -3 and -2, the distribution of the plant rooms and other areas with concrete block walls is almost complete. Work has begun on surveying the installations on the lower floors, and a part of the drainage system is already connected to the foul water collection network. This work is being carried out externally and necessitated road closures by lane on the Carretera de Barcelona. This work is now finished and traffic has been fully restored.
January 2020
The workers are finishing raising the structure and pillars on which the upper floors will be supported. At the same time, the installation and partition phases for the underground floors have also begun.
December 2019
In 2019, excavations and earth transport were carried out on the site, involving the movement of approximately 80,000 m³ of soil, with the participation of the company Transports Mateu.
Once the foundation screens have been completed to support the excavation soil, with over 3300 m³ of concrete and 540 tonnes of steel, and with over 250 anchors to temporarily secure the screens to the ground, earth network lines over 600 m in length have been laid, and over 300 m of sewage pipes have been installed running through the slab.
The 1.2 m thick slab has been realised with over 5,500 m³ of concrete poured and over 900 tonnes of steel incorporated within it. The main companies that have formed part of the UTE team thus far have been, amongst others, Ferrallats Armangué, ULMA, Estructures Metàl·liques JS, Envirosoil, NewDry, Martilobo, Riude-Trans, Germans Cruz and Nohiplou.
The lower basement slab (PS-3) has now been built and work is underway on the upper columns and slabs, of (PS-2 and PS-1) with over 4000 m³ of concrete and over 600 tonnes of steel, with slabs of different thicknesses forming the different floor levels.
The forecast for the end of 2019 is to reach the ground floor with the structure and the initial stages of installations on the lower floors commenced.
During this year 2020, it is already expected that the building will present its full volume and that the work can be seen to be well advanced both internally and externally.
October 2019
Building.- The building phase of the new Clínica Girona begins, on the south side. Pillars and walls are being erected for the ceiling of the minus-three floor, while some parts of the foundation slab are still being concreted.
And in October 2019, the third crane was assembled and put into operation. There are three. To the two large cranes located on both sides of the building, outside the construction perimeter, a third one has been added, located in the centre of the building, to facilitate the tasks of distributing and supplying materials.
September 2019
Foundations.- In September 2019, the works are in the foundations phase. Once all the earthworks are finished and the site for the new Clinic has been completely cleared, dewatering of the groundwater in the area continues, and the screens, over 20 metres deep, are fully visible and perfectly delineate the perimeter, entirely free of soil.
August 2019
The foundation slab. In August 2019, the pouring of the first section of foundations began. This is the construction of what is called “The foundation slab”, which will be the concrete base for the entire building.
May 2019
Earthworks and site visit.- The Manager of Clínica Girona, Carles Espígol, visits the construction site of the new Clinic on May 8, 2019, accompanied by architects Patricio Martínez and Maximià Torruella from PMMT Arquitectes. The works are progressing well! Once the perimeter screens were finished, in May 2019, the dewatering of groundwater and earthworks commenced.
March 2019
The concrete diaphragm walls are nearing completion. In March 2019, the diaphragm walls, or concrete screens, around the perimeter of the new building will be finished. These walls, with a depth of over 20 metres, completely define the perimeter of the future building and end in a “cap beam” which will also be completed during the spring of 2019, thereby allowing for the next phase of excavation to commence.
February 2019
Construction of the diaphragm walls and the excavation of soil and groundwater has begun. In the early months of 2019, the foundation phase proceeded, with the construction of the diaphragm walls that will define the perimeter of the new building, as well as the excavation of soil and groundwater.
February 2018 – December 2018
The demolition of the old buildings on the plot, along with the cleaning and urbanisation of the area, began in February 2018. This preliminary phase of demolishing the industrial buildings, cleaning, and urbanising the land lasted several months and proceeded more slowly than usual due to the presence of fibre cement (asbestos cement) in the roofs of some of the buildings, necessitating special measures for this work. There was a delay of months in demolishing the buildings next to the train tracks, caused by delays in permits from ADIF, who only permitted these demolitions to take place during a very limited time window and in the early hours of the morning. Heavy machinery did not begin work until after the summer, and at the end of 2018, construction work on the new Girona Clinic at the southern entrance to the city properly commenced.
A PMMT project
The architectural project for the future Girona Clinic is signed by PMMT architects. It will be a large building with three underground floors and seven above ground level on the Barcelona street side and five on the track side.
According to PMMT: “It has been decided to build a new building in the same city that will greatly expand the area of the current clinic, increasing it from around 13,000 m2 to 41,000 m2. All services will be expanded, making it a reference clinic in Catalonia. This new clinic will have services such as emergencies, dialysis, an exemplary diagnostic imaging service with 16 imaging rooms, outpatient clinics, assisted reproduction, pathological anatomy, rehabilitation, laboratories, ophthalmology, operating theatres, an obstetrics unit, a day hospital, angiography, endoscopy, ICU, hospitalisation units, and all the general services necessary for the clinic's operation, such as pharmacy, kitchen, cleaning, sterilisation, storage, etc.”
The UTE: Rubau-Agefred
The construction work for the new Clinic is the work of the Caravan led by Construccions Rubau, along with Alfred.
The direction of the execution of the work and quality, safety and health control will be carried out by the technical architecture company. AT2 Services. Both the demolition of the ships and all the earthworks are the responsibility of Mateu Transports. Other specialised companies also work there, such as Terratest, responsible for the foundations and diaphragm wall aspects; ESTRUCTURES buildings, and all that relates to the structure of the building; CDM Company expert in noise and vibration isolation solutions; JS Metallic Solutions, as regards metal structures; or Ciprés Group specialising in facades.
The new infrastructure must be completed by the end of summer 2021.
With the construction of the new headquarters, the Clinic is moving towards the medicine of the future http://ves.cat/en4u
