An Taoiseach officially opens BAM’s latest Galway project the Lambe Institute

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD officially opened BAM’s latest Galway project, the Lambe Institute for Translational Research and HRB Clinical Research Facility, a €20 million project located on the grounds of University Hospital Galway. The project was a joint contract with NUI Galway and the Health Service Executive. A five-storey building with a gross floor area of 5,345 m², the tight building-site footprint within a fully functioning hospital presented BAM with major challenges.

Luke Gibbons, construction director, said: “It involved significant service diversion and rerouting of roads prior to the main construction starting. In conjunction with the HSE and NUI Galway, weeks of detailed planning went into the project to ensure the works didn’t impact on the daily operation of the campus. “A precast concrete frame was used to ensure a decreased number of deliveries to the site, and to ensure that traffic flow was maintained on the hospital ring road while works were taking place. There was a site-specific traffic management plan to ensure that priority was given to emergency vehicles at all times.

There were also lots of services, specialist medical gases etc, above and below ground, that needed to be diverted, but kept live 24-7 while work proceeded on site.” Despite these exacting challenges, the project was completed on time and to budget.