University Hospital Wales

Having a wealth of experience advising on hospital projects, we are proud to have recently worked with Kier Construction to provide noise and acoustic advice for the redevelopment works at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

The hospital is constructing a MRI building with wards, treatments, seminar, pre-assessment spaces, offices and other ancillary spaces. It was proposed to both naturally and mechanically ventilate this scheme. We were advised that the development was to be designed to achieve the requirements of HTM 08-01 and the main elements for us to consider were

• Internal Ambient Noise Levels
• Reverberation Time Control
• Internal Sound Insulation
• External Plant Noise Control
• MRI Plant Noise Control

Throughout the design stage, we worked closely with the Kier design team to help develop the proposals and advise of any risks and limitations of the design. We developed a risk assessment for the works which set out the proposed noise and vibration limits/thresholds to be worked to based on the construction method, employers requirements and baseline noise and vibration data.

We assessed the existing and proposed noise sources and gave internal sound insulation advise for the sensitive spaces and between the noise generating spaces and the sensitive receivers. We also addressed noise generating activities such as plant noise, as they had the potential to adversely affect the wards and offices.

We gave construction noise and vibration advice, monitoring and mitigation measures with the aim of reducing the impact and risk to the existing sensitive receivers.