Skanska closes in on £50m Scots hospital

Skanska looks to have made the cut for a £50m hospital deal in Scotland - one of the few north of the Border not to have been procured under the PPP system.

Sources say that the client, the State Hospitals Board of Scotland, is now in final talks with Skanska for a new-build secure mental hospital in Lanarkshire.

This means that pitches from two rivals - Laing O'Rourke and Miller Construction - have now been discharged.

The Board is expected to officially confirm its preferred contractor within the next few weeks.

Work on site is expected to begin immediately after the contract is formally signed, with phased completion due within four years.

The new hospital, which will span around 19,000m2, will be built on the site of the State Hospital at Carstairs.

And a further 1,500m2 of existing buildings will be converted to cater for patients' specific needs - such as therapy and vocational guidance.

The State Hospital is one of only four high-security hospitals in the UK and the only one of its kind in Scotland. It admits patients who suffer from dangerous or criminal disorders and who cannot find treatment elsewhere.

Because of this, the construction and refurbishment work will be carried out in three phases to minimise disruption both to patients and the normal running of the hospital.

The contract also calls for temporary secure fencing to be put up to allow construction work to carry on outside the existing secure fence.