McBains to project manage Sussex Cancer Centre: delivery and phasing notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has appointed McBains to provide project and cost management for the £250m, five-storey Sussex Cancer Centre at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, with Laing O’Rourke as main contractor. The new facility, due to open in 2029, will triple current cancer treatment capacity to around 60,000 patients a year and is being built on the cleared site of the former Barry Building. As phase two of the 3Ts Redevelopment, it will be linked to the 2023-opened Louisa Martindale Building via a new landscaped plaza, ahead of a future logistics yard replacing the existing cancer department.
Technical Brief
- McBains’ scope covers both project management and cost management under the Trust’s 3Ts Redevelopment.
- Construction is on a fully cleared brownfield hospital site, following demolition of the historic Barry Building.
- McBains previously provided NEC supervision on the Louisa Martindale Building, giving continuity of contract administration approach.
- Earlier enabling works for stage two were also managed by McBains, de‑risking interfaces and underground services for the main build.
- A new landscaped plaza must be coordinated structurally and in levels to connect seamlessly with the Louisa Martindale Building.
Our Take
Within our 732 Infrastructure stories, relatively few UK hospital schemes approach the Sussex Cancer Centre’s £250m scale, signalling that UHSussex is committing to a major regional hub model rather than incremental upgrades at Royal Sussex County Hospital.
The 3Ts Redevelopment being structured into three defined stages gives McBains and Laing O’Rourke scope to standardise logistics and temporary works across the Louisa Martindale Building, the new cancer centre and the final service yard, which typically reduces interface risk on constrained urban hospital sites like Brighton.
A 2029 horizon for the Sussex Cancer Centre means design choices made now will need to anticipate evolving oncology technologies and digital care models; in our infrastructure coverage, long-duration UK health projects that fail to build in this flexibility often require disruptive mid-life refurbishments soon after commissioning.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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