New family-centred Lighthouse Hospital was completed over railway line in Turku

Tyks Lighthouse Hospital is the first hospital in the Nordic countries to be planned over railway tracks. For the purposes of functionality, the hospital was built as close as possible to Turku University Hospital (Tyks) Main Hospital. The new hospital has already been praised by the users of the facilities.

Tyks Lighthouse Hospital opened near Turku University Main Hospital at the beginning of 2022. Among the services transferred to the new 8-floor hospital were paediatrics and adolescent medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, as well as the ear, nose and throat diseases outpatient clinic. The Lighthouse Hospital also manages around 4,000 births every year, and since the beginning the goal was to be the best children’s hospital in Finland.

“The starting point for hospital projects is always functionality, and we want to secure proper and functional facilities for different treatment processes,” says Tyks Property Manager Timo Seppälä. Functionality also eventually determined the location above the motorway and railway line. “Building in connection with the existing hospital turned out to be the most inexpensive option when it came to operating costs.”

The hospital was planned on a deck instead of a plot of land

Seppälä opines that the most interesting phase of the project was the very beginning, when the decision was made to build the hospital above a railway line, for the first time in the Nordic countries. The wild idea required consultations with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the City of Turku, and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. More information on the effects of the project was collected with an extensive study of measures. “We also conducted vibration measurements and separate studies on different factors, such as air quality and electromagnetic disturbances.”

The exceptional construction location was also the first issue to be solved on Sweco’s construction planners’ list. “The entire hospital was planned on top of a concrete deck, so there was no actual plot of land,” says the Department Manager for Structural Engineering Pentti Koponen. Bridge designers specialising in engineering structures were in charge of planning the deck, and once it was completed, tower cranes were brought on top of it. The frame elements were lifted from Hämeenramppi to the deck through 7-metre holes. “In fact, the size of the holes in the deck limited the size of the elements used.”

Adaptability was also retained in the medical imaging facilities

In the design of the Lighthouse Hospital, the same values were highlighted as in other Tyks buildings. “The basic requirements were versatile and easily convertible facilities that support the new treatment processes and mode of operation,” Seppälä emphasises.

From the perspective of construction planners, hospital planning combines office and production facilities, but the sound insulation of rooms has to be above average. The medical imaging facilities and operating rooms also have several special requirements. “The amount of equipment suspended from the ceiling in the operating rooms is considerable, so we used cast-in-place structures,” says Koponen. The solution renders frequent lead-throughs possible.

In the imaging facilities, the construction planning was first and foremost guided by the weight of the equipment. The MRI equipment easily weighs nine tonnes. “We planned the floors of the entire imaging unit to bear 12 kN/m², so that the equipment could later be moved and e.g. examination rooms turned into imaging rooms.”

The adaptability was supported by using hollow core slab elements, from which you can cut one rib in order to create feed-through later as well. “We used the greatest span length possible, as long as the column loads on the deck stayed reasonable,” says Koponen. The lowest elevation of the frame is at the power lines of the railway and the highest at the fourth-floor operating rooms. The floors of the operating rooms in different buildings were planned at the same elevation, so that the staff could switch rooms easily through the connecting bridge. Due to users’ wishes, the partition walls of patient and treatment rooms were strengthened. “This way you can hang even strong equipment on the walls at any spot.”

Despite the exceptional location, the Lighthouse Hospital was completed on budget. According to Timo Seppälä, the technique of the new hospital is like from a different world compared to the U-hospital completed in 1968. This supports functional goals and new treatment practices. For instance, there are many family rooms, and the environment is made more pleasant with imagery of wildlife from nature in the archipelago. “In fact, the hospital has received a lot of positive feedback from customers, visitors and staff.”

Pictures: Mikael Soininen/Tyks