Local college students were recently invited to a Tilbury Douglas building site to learn about construction careers and a very special building process currently being undertaken at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP).

The hospital’s Oncology site is currently being extended to include additional linear accelerator bunkers (LINAC), more commonly known as radiotherapy bunkers.

The bunkers will contain linear accelerator equipment which is used primarily to treat cancer.  The equipment must be shielded to prevent high-energy rays from escaping the treatment room and the most used material for this is very thick specialist concrete called magnadense. Over 1400 tonnes of the magnadense concrete has been supplied for the bunkers, as the walls and ceilings are up to 2.2 meters in thickness.  The complex process was explained to the students by the Tilbury Douglas team.

Paul Gale, Divisional Director at Tillbury Douglas said: “Our teams were excited to welcome members of the general public and local college students onto site to learn more about the important project. We shared some of the technical specialisms required to build the LINAC bunker. Specifically, the detail that went into the pouring of the magnadense concrete which will prevent the radiation used in the linear accelerator escaping the treatment room. We also made sure to highlight the array of roles in construction and early career opportunities at Tilbury Douglas. 

We’re looking forward to sharing more updates on the project and hopefully inviting our guests back for a follow up visit soon.” 

Richard Avery, Learning out of the Classroom Co-ordinator at Stansfield Academy Exeter said: “Just a short note to tell you how much we appreciated the time, effort and planning that went into our visit to your site at Derriford. We were so impressed with how it was pitched and presented from the gear to the future planning and the hands- on experience laid on for us.  You can be sure that post exams our 3 keen engineering students would be very interested in taking you up on your kind offer to re visit. Thanking you once again”

Helena Procter, Lecturer in Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction at City College Plymouth said: “We have been on a fair few visits now and it’s been great to see how everyone approaches it.  We had some great conversations when we came back to the college and whilst we have talked quite in depth about concrete, we learnt so much more about the uses in terms of the radiation examples. It’s been a real success for us in terms of passion, confidence and knowledge.”

The bunkers are due for completion early 2025.

Also in this issue

• A focus on Urgent and Emergency Care
• End of Life pathway enabling patients to have a dignified death
• UHP uses world’s smallest heart pump to provide life-saving treatment
• New South West Peninsula Children’s Surgical Unit at UHP
• Patient Led Assessments of the Care environment (PLACE)
• Join us at our Annual General Meeting