쌍용건설

Ssangyong E&C and its joint venture partners won a contract to build a futuristic general hospital in Singapore, commissioned by the country’s Ministry of Health (MOH). The joint venture consists of Ssangyong E&C, Daewoo E&C and the local company Koh Brothers Building and Civil Engineering. Worth USD 740 million, this 33-month project involves the construction of an 1,800-bed hospital complex known as the Woodlands Health Campus (WHC).

Even though a consortium consisting of Shimizu and Obayashi, the top contractors in Japan, also joined the bidding process, it was Ssangyong E&C that won the tender, a remarkable feat achieved without the submission of the lowest bid. In this bidding war, which focused on Alternative Design Solutions (ADS) evaluations more than technological evaluations, Ssangyong E&C prevailed against competitors by proposing distinguished designs and construction methods and thanks to the client’s recognition of the company’s outstanding hospital construction track record in domestic and overseas markets and of its safety management capability. In particular, Chairman and CEO S. Joon Kim attended all evaluation meetings and gave prudent sales pitches, positively influencing the outcome of the tender.

To be located in the Woodlands area in northern Singapore, the WHC will consist of eight buildings (B4/7F), with a total floor area of 246,000 m2. The largest hospital in Singapore in terms of hospital beds, the WHC will feature four distinct medical institutions (a general hospital, community hospital, nursing home and hospice facility), each embedded with the latest IT technology.

As for construction work, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and other IT-based construction methods will be utilized throughout the entire process. BIM enables VR-based simulation prior to actual construction, dramatically reducing trial-and-error efforts, manpower requirements and construction time. The company has formed a 50-person team dedicated to BIM.

“Our winning of this tender is significant in that we beat out the Japanese bidders, which have monopolized the five large-scale hospital construction projects ongoing in Singapore, in technological evaluations while steering away from a low-price strategy by forming a joint venture with Korean and local companies,” a company official said. With the completion of the WHC, Ssangyong E&C will have constructed a total of some 12,000 hospital beds in advanced healthcare facilities around the world.