THE company behind Grosvenor's £1bn Liverpool One is close to clinching the multi-million pound contract to rebuild Liverpool's world famous Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
Bulldozer callsAlder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed it has approached the Department of Health and Treasury to request the appointment of the Acorn consortium - comprising John Laing, Laing O'Rourke and Interserve - to redevelop the Alder Hey children's hospital in Merseyside.
Following approval from the Department of Health and Treasury, it is planned there will be an official announcement of the appointment of Acorn on March 1.
Laing O'Rourke was the main contractor appointed to build the award winning retail and leisure Liverpool One development that has dramatically transformed the fortunes of the city centre.
Once the appointment of the Acorn Consortium has been confirmed it is expected work will start on the new Alder Hey later this year, with the project completed in 2015.
It is likely Alder Hey will continue to operate normally throughout the construction period, using wards built to the design of legendary nurse Florence Nightingale.
Once the new building is finished the Nightingale blocks will be demolished to make way for new parkland to replace the area of Springfield Park used for the new hospital.
Liverpool OneDuring the past few years hospital bosses consulted with the local community and its young patients to get their ideas for the replacement hospital.
The concept emerged of a Children's hospital in a park, the first of its kind in Europe.
Alder Hey started life as a workhouse – with many of the original workhouse buildings, dating back to the 1800s, still in use.
It handles more than 200,000 young patients a year, making it one of the world's busiest children's hospitals. It became a children's hospital in 1914 and since has been at the forefront of many medical advances in child health care and treatments.
