Wales and West construction firm opco has further underlined its growing reputation as a specialist in the health sector by starting work on a £2.4m medical centre in Glastonbury, Somerset.
The new Glastonbury Health Centre, at Wells Road, being built on behalf of Glastonbury Healthcare, is the fifth such medical project opco has been involved with in the recent past.
The new centre, which will be able to cater for 8,000 patients, is a replacement for a 1970’s built centre on the same site which, when it opened, won an award for its design.
The new larger centre, due for completion in autumn next year and which incorporates a number of environmental features in its design and construction, is being built to BREEAM very good standard.
Glastonbury Health Centre Business Manager Sandie Sealey said: “The contemporary design and lay out of the new centre being built for us by opco includes a great deal of flexibility allowing intelligent use of space leading to a wider and best targeted provision of services for our patients.
“The increase in the size of the centre means we will be able to cater for anticipated growth in patient numbers from our current 6,000 to 8,000 over the next five years.”
Mrs Sealey said the five GP Glastonbury Health Centre currently offers a wide range of traditional and complementary treatments. Provision will be boosted considerably at the new centre with nine treatment rooms and a large training room to cater for patient education groups.
Bruce MacDonald, opco Construction Director, said: “This project in Glastonbury is the latest in a string of similar health centres opco has secured the most recent of these being a £2.4m scheme in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire and the £1.25m Gelligaer Medical Centre, in Caerphilly South Wales.”
Mr MacDonald said: “We’re delighted to have been chosen by Glastonbury Healthcare to complete this important contract to best serve their current and future patients.
“Our track record in the health sector is marking us out as experts in this specialist field with work being won on the back of the successful completion of previous successful projects such as one in Barry and another in Porth, both in South Wales.”
The Glastonbury scheme involves a two phase demolition of the existing Wells Road health centre. The work will see the construction of a two storey timber framed building with rendered elevations, aluminium windows and external architectural feature panels.
Internally the building comprises of nine medical treatment rooms, general practitioners’ rooms, therapy rooms, administration and a variety of wet rooms. A car park will be built on the location of the existing health centre.
Architects for the scheme are ADP Architects and structural engineers are Mann Williams.
opco has continued to demonstrate its versatility in the construction industry with recent completion which includes a £5m brewery for Hall & Woodhouse in Dorset and a £3.5m redevelopment of the National Museum of Wales Upper West Wing galleries. The firm is currently working on a selection of projects including a £4.1m development of 16 apartments and four town houses at Porthminster Hotel, St Ives Bay, Cornwall and a new £2m recycling unit for Celtic Recycling, south Wales as well as a 90 bedroom, £3.1m Travelodge hotel in Balham, South London.
opco has a forward order book of some £40m and employs 70 staff from its offices in Cardiff and Exeter.
