쌍용건설

The Largest in Singapore with 1,800 Hospital Beds

The Unique Purpose of Each Room Complicating Construction

Earthquake-Resistant Construction Design and Equipment

A Civil Shelter for Wartime Operation

Use of Over 100 Mock-Ups and VR Models for Proper Construction

 

The Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort (MBS) is a world-renowned work of architecture and the pride of the Singapore Government. This greatest Singaporean landmark and global architectural masterpiece that made its mark on history is embedded with Ssangyong E&C’s passion and spirit. Not only is the MBS a distinguished architectural project in the annals of Korean overseas construction, but is also considered Ssangyong E&C’s tour de force that represents the company’s premier status in the global construction and architecture industries. In Singapore, building on the success of the MBS, the company is leading the Korean Wave in construction by securing diverse projects involving the construction of roads, civil engineering works and hospitals.

 

An advanced, future-ready general hospital is being constructed by a Korean contractor in Singapore. The Woodlands Health Campus (WHC) was commissioned by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in March 2018. According to Ssangyong E&C’s announcement on October 7, the WHC will be built on a 76,600 square meter site in the Woodlands area in northern Singapore. This 1,800-bed complex (Total floor area: 246,000 ㎡) will consist of eight buildings (B4/F7), including four individual healthcare institutions (a general hospital, community hospital, nursing home and hospice facility). With a project value of USD 740 million, once completed, the WHC will be the largest general hospital in Singapore.

 

An advanced general hospital, such as WHC, is considered the gem of all construction projects as the construction requires the use of complex technologies and highly sophisticated construction management and implementation expertise. In fact, facilities required for bedrooms and living rooms in an apartment (e.g. electricity, heating and piping systems) are fairly uniform and simple, whereas each room of a hospital requires diverse and much more complicated facilities. In particular, since each room (e.g. operating theater, emergency room and doctor’s office) is designed for a unique purpose, the relevant facilities in these rooms are complex and varied. The WHC will also feature earthquake-resistant designs as advanced medical equipment must continue to function properly even during an earthquake.

 

In addition, the first and second basement floors will have a civil shelter built in compliance with Swiss defense standards, to enable the continuation of essential medical activities during a war. Walls up to 1.6 meters thick and explosion-proof doors weighing a maximum of 22 tons will also be installed.

 

The Singapore Government is planning to install advanced medical equipment in the WHC to make it a future-ready hospital. Since the equipment that will be installed in the hospital has yet to be decided, determining the placement of even the smallest item, such as an electrical outlet, can be a challenge. As such, countless design changes will have to be made along the way, a situation half-jokingly dubbed “a nightmare” by a Singaporean official.

 

Another challenge with the project is that most structural parts must be prefabricated and then assembled on site just like Lego blocks. As such, Ssangyong E&C spent some USD 344,000 and installed over 100 life-sized mock-ups resembling each of the WHC’s facilities, in a separately reserved space on site. In cases where mock-ups could not be produced, VR models were used instead.

 

“Every time the CEO or other members of the WHC visits us and provides opinions on the design and materials of each room, we have to reflect their ideas in our plans,” one Ssangyong E&C employee on site said. “What’s more, we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that new equipment or better equipment may become available and used instead. All these challenges make it a tough project.” Ssangyong E&C won the bidding process against two Korean consortiums and a Japanese consortium consisting of Shimizu and Obayashi, the top contractors in Japan. Over a period of one year, the bidding committee made four visits to Singaporean and overseas hospital construction sites built by each consortium, conducted two technical evaluations, held an interview session regarding construction and alternative designs and examined safety management capabilities.

 

This thorough screening process was behind Ssangyong E&C’s remarkable achievement in securing the WHC project. During this process, Chairman and CEO S. Joon Kim participated in all evaluation meetings, thereby learning about the client’s expectations and suggesting alternative solutions. He was the only CEO present at such meetings among all the CEO’s of the participating consortiums. In the end, the bidding committee’s trust and its recognition of Ssangyong E&C’s outstanding construction track record allowed the company to beat out the Japanese bidders who had monopolized the five large-scale hospital construction projects in Singapore.

 

By the time the WHC is completed, Ssangyong E&C will have constructed a total of some 12,000 hospital beds in advanced healthcare facilities around the world. Moreover, the company will have set an unparalleled record of building three state-of-the-art general hospitals in Singapore, namely the WHC Tan Tock Seng Hospital, a state-of-the-art 1,211-bed general hospital which was once the largest in Southeast Asia when completed in 1998 and can even operate continuously during a war and the new KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital currently under construction, an 825-bed advanced healthcare institution dubbed “the cradle of Singaporeans” as about 35 percent of all Singaporeans were born there.