Specialist for pre-fabricated buildings, Cadolto, builds 14 hospitals for the Russian Federation
The modernization of the Russian health care system is in full swing. And Cadolto, international market leader in the medical modular construction sector, has been commissioned to provide the buildings at the heart of the project – numerous high-tech medical centres located throughout this huge country. Cadolto, headquartered in Cadolzburg near Nuremberg, is completing the entire order in a very short space of time.
It proved possible to completely pre-fabricate the fully-equipped modules for the first seven hospitals, each with over 330 units and a gross floor area of around 19,000 m2, by the end of June, 2008.
“The first 7 high-tech medical centres for the Federation represent an order volume of some 200 million euros,” explains Cadolto managing director Gerhard Flohr. The go-ahead for the world’s biggest-ever order in the modular construction sector came on March 6th, the day the outline contract between Cadolto and the general contractor, the state-owned, Moscow-based company TECHNOINTROG was signed. The first centre, a specialist cardiology clinic in the city of Penza, some 700 km south-east of Moscow, was completed and went into operation in December 2007. It is planned for all 14 hospitals to be completed and ready for use by 2009.
High political significance
According to bfai – the German Federal Agency for Foreign Trade – sales opportunities in Russia are good because the country’s medical infrastructure is in great need of modernization. Health care is one of Russia’s four national priority areas into which billions of public funds are being pumped. In 2007 some 130 billion roubles, around 3.7 billion euros, were spent on the health care system and similar sums are planned for the years to come. Plans include 14 high-tech hospitals throughout the country equipped with the latest medical technology.
Cadolto is providing centres for cardiosurgery, traumatology and neurology. The company’s rational modular construction technology is making a real contribution to the rapid and significant improvement of medical care in the whole of Russia. The enormous political significance attached by the Russian government to this project has been clearly underlined by visits from several high-ranking officials. President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by his successor Dimitry Medvedev, visited the newly-opened clinic in Penza on January 28, 2008 and expressly emphasized the benefits of modular construction. The Russian government had made a conscious decision against a cheap, home-made solution, Putin stated. Giving preference to the import of an established construction method which combined high speed with high quality had been the right decision.
Both Michail Surabov, Russian Minister of Health, who visited the facilities in Cadolzburg in May 2007 and the Russian prime minister Victor Zubkov who inspected the building site in Astrakhan in October of that year, were convinced by the quality of Cadolto constructions.
Initial contacts between Cadolto and decision-takers in Russia came about through Coblenz-based general planning company TRANSUMED back in 2005. General contractor TECHNOINTORG then analysed offers from bidders throughout the world before placing the order. Ultimately, these investigations showed that Cadolto was the only company whose technical skills and capacities meant it could be trusted to complete this complex building project professionally, to a high standard and in such a short space of time. This is clear confirmation of Cadolto’s role as market leader, which will be consolidated even further in future by this major project.
Capacity expansion and smoothly-functioning logistics
Cadolto made considerable expansions to its facilities in Cadolzburg and Krölpa/Thuringia in order to be able to produce, equip, transport and assemble large numbers of high-tech modules in time for the desired completion date. PREKONS, who produce under licence in Ankara, also extended its production hall area by over 10,000 m2. New employees were recruited and numerous subcontracts placed to cover the work involved in this special project. The expansion has placed Cadolto in the position of being able to advise and supply all other national and international customers with its customary speed and efficiency as well as meeting the many challenges of the major order from the Russian Federation.
The finished modules will be transported by land and sea from Cadolzburg, Krölpa and Ankara to their destinations many thousands of kilometres away in Russia. The transport of the modules, which weigh between 21 and 35 tonnes, will last between four to eight weeks, depending on the distance to the hospital.
Obviously, the planned delivery of a fully equipped specialist hospital consisting of some 330 modules every two months calls for well-thought-out, smooth-running logistics. The room units for the cardiology clinic in Penza, for example, were taken by heavy goods vehicle from the factories in Cadolzburg and Krölpa to the shipping terminal Konstin Quay in the Port of Luebeck, from here they were shipped via St. Petersberg, the Russian canal system and the Volga to the port of Ulyanosk, where another heavy goods vehicle took them to the construction site. Transport time in this case: six weeks (July 12 to early September 2007).
Cardiosurgery centre Penza – high quality architecture and equipment
The now completed cardiology centre in Penza is an excellent example of the high standard of architecture and equipment Cadolto is achieving in its huge Russian project. The very imposing building made up of a three-storey main building to which a Y-shaped four-floor wing is attached, has a useful area of almost 19,000 m2. Large expanses of glass and facade areas in orange, light yellow and grey give structure to the building’s varied exterior. Small intermediate wings and projecting staircase windows add lively touches to the main building.
The modern feeling of the building flows without interruption into the interior. Highly functional as it is, the spacious corridors, bright wards and soft colours create the impression of a friendly, inviting hospital. There are beds for a total of 185 patients, 40 of these are intensive care beds. The latest medical equipment, including a magnetic resonance tomograph, a computer tomograph, two angiography rooms and three operating theatres ensure first-class cardiology care for the population of the south western region of Russia.
Cadolto modular technology
Amazing as it may seem, only nine months elapsed between the signing of the outline contract for the entire project on March 6, 2007 and the handover of the first clinic. This speed, linked, it must be remembered, with an extremely high standard of quality, is the result of the unique expertise which Cadolto has developed and continued to optimize in the course of decades.
Its modular construction technology allows Cadolto to “translate” individual architect’s plans 1:1 into modular factory planning. Almost 100% of all construction work is carried out in the company’s modern production halls. This means that the unique construction concept is implemented exactly as intended and the customer also benefits from the impressive
advantages of rational pre-fabrication. From clinics and hospital wards to high-tech laboratories and clean rooms to company headquarters, office and administrative buildings and public facilities, Cadolto covers the entire construction range – offering speed, low-cost and high quality with absolutely no architectural restrictions.
Expressive facades in steel, glass, aluminium, wood, plaster or elegant natural stone allow the realization of even the most unusual design requests. The architectural theme is continued in the interior where visitors are delighted by the perfect finish of the reception area and staircase, rooms flooded with light, inner courtyards or glass roofs and a never-ending variety of layouts.
Cadolto’s aim is to provide holistic rooms for living and working, created using characteristic architecture, forward-looking equipment and technology and practical structures to produce a high-quality, welcoming atmosphere.
The company uses its proven modular construction methods professionally and with passionate commitment in order to meet the demanding requirements of modern buildings, especially hospitals. Understanding their customers’ work processes and functional requirements and grasping their aims are aspirations the Cadolto engineers face on a daily basis. A network of experienced contacts guarantees an individual and in-depth consultancy service right from the start.
The Cadolto modular construction technology concentrates all the elements of a building project in one location. 95% of production takes place at the Cadolto factory – independent of the weather, subject to on-going quality controls, punctually and economically. The individual modules are pre-fabricated here in their full individual size and with all equipment. Very short paths and a high level of coordination provide the architects with room data and the technical criteria of the project including fixed price and completion date in a very short space of time.
When the building modules leave the Cadolto production halls they literally contain everything, including all medical, laboratory and building technology, sanitary installations, tiles, fitments, equipment and the facade. Production is so concentrated that even enormously long transport routes – such as to all corners of the huge Russian Federation – are worthwhile.
Activities on the construction site are reduced to 10 to 20% of what is normally required, as the modules only have to be combined on site to form the building, which is then ready for use immediately. For our customers in Russia this means in concrete terms that the only construction work they have to do is to dig the foundations of the hospitals. This also minimizes the disturbance caused by the building site – which can be a factor of major importance when a hospital wishes to continue normal operations during construction.
Individual buildings whose production is based on standardized processes, procedures and solutions and is planned and implemented by an experienced team – this is the secret of Cadolto’s proven quality. The well-thought-out materials logistics, the stringently controlled order system and a pool of selected suppliers make for total product transparency from wall construction down to the tiniest screw. In combination with clearly-structured, ultra-modern production technologies, they represent the unique foundation for the high quality of Cadolto’s modular construction technology.
A technology which, thanks to its high-precision industrial production method, creates buildings with an extremely long useful life. The modular concept also provides ideal conditions for all kinds of conversions and extensions, adding storeys, moving buildings, dismantling and reuse. Cadolto carries out tasks of this nature with the same speed and professionalism as for new buildings and offers a free choice between purchase, leasing or hire. In times in which the half lives of medical and scientific processes and technologies are becoming ever shorter this flexibility is an increasingly valuable factor.
International market opportunities
The successful management of the major project for the Russian Federation has finally established Cadolto as the leader of the modular construction sector in terms of technology, capacity and quality. The company’s future on the East European and Russian clinic construction sector looks extremely rosy. Modular construction technology is now so advanced and meets the economic and technological requirements of contemporary global hospital construction so perfectly that the company sees increasing possibilities in other international sales markets.
Seven federal centres for Russia – an overview of the project
The first seven hospitals:
Krasnodar, traumatology, 20,189 m2
Chabarovsk, cardiosurgery, 18,685 m2
Krasnoyarsk, cardiosurgery, 18,685 m2
Tyumen, neurosurgery, 16,819 m2
Penza, Kardiochirurgie, 1 8.997 m2
Astrakhan, cardiosurgery, 18,685 m2
Cheboksary, traumatology, 20,189 m2
Exemplary: the equipment of the cardiosurgery hospital in Penza:
185 beds, including 40 intensive care beds
1 magnetic resonance tomograph
1 computer tomograph
2 angiography rooms
3 operating theatres
The remaining hightech medical centres:
Cardiosurgery, Kaliningrad, 17,505 m2
Traumatology, Smolensk, 18,780 m2
Cardiosurgery, Perm, 17,505 m2
Cardiosurgery, Chelyabinsk, 17,505 m2
Neurosurgery, Novosibirsk, 15,787 m2
Traumatology, Barnaul, 18,780 m2
Traumatology, Vladivostok, 18,780 m2
