Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is Africa’s biggest hospital, and the third largest in the world. Located south of Johannesburg, the public health facility has 3,400 beds, employs 6,700 staff and occupies 70 hectares of land.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the departments of Health and Infrastructure in South Africa’s Gauteng province invested in a brand new 500-bed intensive care unit (ICU) at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to serve the drastic surge in admissions caused by the virus.
Mace was appointed by Enza Construction to provide cost- and project management services on the design and build of the 32,000 sqm project, which commenced in July 2020.
To ensure a timely delivery, the client used a rapid building system of light steel frame construction. In the pre-construction phase, the earthworks process involved the removal of more than 130,000 m3 in-situ material, including large quantities of rock – a notable achievement in itself.
The entire project was managed through BIM 360 on a collaborative platform that seamlessly brought together the lead engineers in Cape Town, lead architect (quarantined in Italy) and project teams in Durban as well as Johannesburg.
Watch a time lapse of the impressive project, which completed in February 2021.
