As of Wednesday, February 6, 2020, over 600 people in China have been killed by the corona virus and thousands more cases are being diagnosed by the day, according to the NY Times. With the outbreak so widespread, China had to take drastic measures to help combat against it, including building two large hospital facilities in under two weeks.
The two new hospitals were officially completed and opened earlier this week. The first, which opened on January 23, holds 1,000 beds and the second opened two days later and holds 1,600 beds. Both facilities took about 12 days to complete from groundbreaking and are located in Wuhan, China.
Besides the huge monetary investment and the 7,000 laborers working around the clock to make it possible, completing such large facilities in under two weeks is an incredible feat. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article explaining exactly how the process unfolded.
In short:
site excavation took approximately 48 hours,
A sandwich of 8” of sand, two geotextile layers with a waterproof mat in between followed by an additional layer of 8” of sand was installed
A concrete foundation was placed on top of the sand layer, which was then topped with pillars to keep the hospital units off of the ground.
Skeleton frames were then built and prefabricated wall and ceiling panels were installed
Each room includes two beds and is over 100 square feet in size. To prevent the spread of microorganisms, the rooms are depressurized and include double-doored boxes so that the hospital staff can safely deliver food to the rooms. Electrical, medical and ventilation systems are also provided to each room, but it’s unclear how extensive of systems they are.
When China wants to put its resources behind a project, they can certainly put the pedal to the metal. A 2018 video showed 1,500 workers replacing a large section of railroad tracks in about 9 hours, a 2016 video showed 116 excavators working side-by-side to demolish a 1,640 foot long overpass overnight, not to mention the hospital that was built in Beijing in 7 days to fight the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Below you can watch the time lapse videos of both of the Coronavirus hospitals built in Wuhan, China, uploaded to YouTube by CGTN:
Shane is the creator of Construction Junkie and an active construction project manager. In his career, he has managed interior remodel projects, site development, construction safety, governmental project compliance, and facility maintenance. He has a strong passion for construction technology and safety, as well as sharing the knowledge or insights he has gained throughout his career.