A consortium of three Bouygues Construction subsidiaries (DV Construction, GFC Construction and GTB Construction) has won the contract to build a new hospital in Orléans, France. The €202 million contract covers structural and external works, along with the architectural trades. This will be the first regional hospital in France to be awarded the HQE (High Environmental Quality) label.

The foundation stone was laid on Friday, November 27, 2009, at a ceremony attended by Roselyne Bachelot, Minister for Health and Sport, Serge Grouard, MP and mayor of Orléans, and Jean-Pierre Gusching, Chief Executive of the Orléans Regional Hospital.

Located to the south of the city, the building will house the 42 units of the Orléans Regional Hospital's main two sites, La Source and La Porte Madeleine. With a total surface of approximately 170,000 m², the new hospital will offer 1,376 beds (as compared with 800 at present). It will boast ultramodern technical facilities (including 22 operating theatres, 6 specialised labs and 2 interventional radiology rooms) and will have a 700-place underground car park.

Designed by the Groupe 6 firm of architects, the hospital will be granted the HQE label. In particular, it will be equipped with sun screens in coloured glass, and 70% of its facade will be timber-framed with air-permeable aluminium window frames. In view of the building's substantial air-conditioning and ventilation needs, eco-responsible energy management has been developed, incorporating the use of new energies (wood heating, deep geothermal energy, solar energy). The project complies with the precepts of bioclimatic architecture (passive solar energy, sun blinds, external thermal insulation). Apparatus and accessories have been chosen with regard to their energy efficiency (argon filled double glazing, triple glazing with integrated sun shades, heat pumps, LED lights).

At peak periods, roughly 1,000 people will be working on the site, which is scheduled to last just over five years. The first patients are due to be admitted early in 2015.

Bouygues Construction has maintained a high profile in this sector since the early 1980s, both in France and in international locations, and it has acquired strong expertise in these complex operations. The Group is positioned as a leading player in the field, capable of acting at all levels (financing, designing and constructing buildings, carrying out the technical packages, operating and maintaining facilities) under various contractual arrangements ("separate work packages", general contracting, design-build and Public-Private Partnerships). The impressive references to the Group's credit in this sector include the Women's, Children's and Haematology unit at the Caen university hospital, the Clermont-Ferrand university hospital, and the Arras and Evreux hospitals in France and Barnet and Central Middlesex hospitals in the United Kingdom. Numerous hospital projects are currently under construction in France (Bourgoin-Jallieu, Besançon, Amiens, Calais, Toulouse, Bobigny, etc.) and in other countries (Broomfield and North Middlesex in London, UK, and Surrey in Vancouver, Canada).