Inside the never-used Liverpool hospital which needs £100m repairs

Inside the botched Liverpool hospital where walls and wiring must be ripped out for £100million repairs after now-defunct construction company left it unusable and years behind schedule

The Royal Liverpool hospital was supposed to be completed in March 2017 but may take another three years
But building work done by Carillion, which went bust last year, has been found to have serious defects
Contractors must now strip out parts of the building and use concrete and steel to make it safe for the public

Photos have revealed the inside of a state-of-the-art hospital in Liverpool which is being taken apart to make way for £100million of repairs.

The Royal Liverpool Hospital was almost 90 per cent complete before the construction company Carillion went under last year.

Photos show ceiling tiles taken down, exposed cabling and pipes and floor ripped up as builders prepare to fix ‘complex’ structural defects.

Hundreds of tonnes of steel and concrete will be used to finally get the £429m building ready for patients in repairs which could take another three years, according to some estimates.

The Royal Liverpool Hospital’s almost-completed new building has been empty for years and builders are starting to take it apart again before it ever saw a single patient because ‘complex’ repairs need to be done on the structure

Although the hospital trust has not confirmed when the work is expected to be completed or how much it will cost, it adds another day to an already beleaguered project.

The nearby hospital buildings currently housing all the NHS staff and patients are crumbling and suffer regular flooding.

But operations will have to stay there for the foreseeable future after surveyors found serious problems at the new site.

These include cracked concrete posts and cladding which does not meet fire regulations on the outside.

Many vital systems such as water pipes and power cables need to be pulled out and moved around in the building so the remedial work – set to be done by contractor Laing O’Rourke – can take place.

But all the while the buildings must keep a power and water supply.

And taps must run regularly on the site to stop water sitting stagnant in the pipes and risking the spread of Legionnaires’ disease.

Legionnaires’ is an uncommon lung infection similar to pneumonia which is spread by people inhaling water droplets which have become a home to the bacteria.

Photos from the Liverpool Echo show contractors working to strap back walls, floors and ceilings so wiring can be moved and faulty stonework can be replaced. Hundreds of tonnes of steel and concrete will be needed to make the building useable

After Carillion, which did most of the work on the building, went bust last year the hospital was left empty. Now new contractors, a company called Laing O’Rourke, are being drafted in to fix Carillion’s shortcomings

While vital structural work is done the hospital must have a continuous supply of power and water to prevent facilities from deteriorating and Legionnaires’ disease from building up in the water pipes

Ceiling tiles have been removed while the building is rewired in places, and other pictures from the Liverpool Echo show entire floors and walls gutted so builders can get at crucial stonework to repair it.

Cladding on some of the outer walls will have to be stripped, and even some walls may need rebuilding, according to surveyors.

Most of the defects are believed to be restricted to three floors out of the total 13, but plastering and wiring will have to be redone after the building’s structure is made safe.

Andy Thomson, project director at Laing O’Rourke, told the Daily Mail last week: ‘Fixing the structural issues is a complex programme of work, with the added challenge of protecting the existing hi-tech fixtures and fittings in the hospital.

‘This requires heating the building and maintaining water flow to prevent deterioration, which would lead to costly replacements if it was not diligently carried out.’

Some of the cladding used on external walls of the hospital failed to pass fire safety tests so must be removed, and in some cases entire sections of outer wall may even need replacing

Repairs are officially expected to finish next year and cost £100m but estimates suggest they may actually take three more years and cost twice that much

The hospital was almost finished when Carillion went bust, but now new works mean patients and staff must continue to use crumbling facilities nearby, where the outdated hospital buildings regularly flood

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